Magical Musicals
by Spongyllama
Summary: Harry Potter characters burst into Disney songs at all the best and worst moments. Mostly Marauder Era, but several others.
1. Belle

**Author's Note:** If Harry Potter were one big huge Disney movie...life would be complete.

**Song: **_Beauty and the Beast _- "Belle"

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything featured in this fic.

Today was Saturday, the day of a Quidditch game, but Lily Evans found herself sleeping in after an uncomfortably long date with her Ancient Runes textbook and a quill the night previously. Someone had drawn back her curtains, probably hours ago, but she had just snuggled herself closer to her pillow and remained in her dream.

When she opened her eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them, she threw back her crimson covers and sat up, yawning. She brushed her teeth, pulled on her robes, and instead of heading to the Great Hall for a delicious lunch, she took a book in hand and marched straight towards the library.

Somewhere on the sixth floor, she stopped at a window and breathed in the fresh spring air. As she began to walk again, brushed her red hair out of her eyes and sang softly.

_"Little school, such a quiet castle, every day like the one before,"_ she sang softly to herself. _"Little school, full of little people, waking up to say..."_

Students burst out of doors to unused classrooms and secret passages on both sides of her.

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Bonjour!"_

"Wait, why are you speaking French?"

_"There goes that smart kid with his bag like always,"_ Lily sang with her green eyes on one small, stressed-looking Ravenclaw boy, _"The same old books and scrolls to read. Every morning just the same since the morning that I came to this huge wizarding castle..."_

_"Morning, Lily!"_ Slughorn boomed merrily from a few feet away. She could only imagine why he had come up to the fifth or sixth floor of the castle.

_"Morning, Professor."_

_"Were are you off to?"_

_"The library,"_ Lily said with a smile. _"I just finished the most _wonderful_ story about a beanstalk, and an ogre, and –"_

_"That's nice, m'girl."_ Slughorn looked off in another direction, and Lily looked and saw that no one was there. _"MARIE! THE BAGUETTES! HURRY UP!"_ He bounced off towards this unseen woman and Lily just shrugged with the same patient smile.

She didn't notice that a few students were crowded around behind her. _"Look there she goes that girl who's strange no question, dazed and distracted can't you tell?"_ they all sang in perfect harmony.

_"Never part of any crowd,"_ a shrill voice crooned.

_"Since her head's up on some cloud,"_ agreed a baritone.

They all chanted on cue, _"No denying she's a funny girl, Lily."_

_"Bonjour!"_ a student yelled.

_"Good day!"_

_"How is your family?"_

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Good day!"_

_"How is your wife?"_

_"I need six eggs!"_

_"That's too expensive!"_

"Wait, why are all these kids talking in French? How does that kid have a wife?"

Lily sang, _"There must be more than this provincial life!"_

_"Good morning Lily,"_ Madam Pince said from the door of the library. The hawk-like woman had grown fond of the always-library-visiting Lily.

_"Good morning! I've come to return the book I borrowed."_

_"Finished already?"_

_"Oh, I couldn't put it down,"_ Lily said genuinely. _"Have you gotten anything new?"_

_"Not since yesterday,"_ Madam Pince chortled.

_"That's all right. I'll borrow...this one!"_

_"That one? But you've read it twice!"_

_"Oh, it's my favorite! Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise!"_

Madam Pince smiled. _"Well, if you like it all that much, it's yours."_

Lily gasped. _"But Madam!"_

_"I insist!"_

_"Well..thank you! Thank you very much!"_

Lily left the library and plunged straight into a crowd of students, oblivious when they all chorused, _"Look there she goes that girl who's so peculiar, I wonder if she's feeling well!"_

The girls sang, _"With a dreamy far-off look –"_

The boys, _"With her nose stuck in a book –"_

_"What a puzzle to the rest of us, Lily!"_

_"Ah," _Lily sang, leaning casually against a window with the newly borrowed book on her lap, her voice melodious and rich. _"Isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part because – you'll see,"_ she sang as a large barn owl landed in the windowsill beside her. _"Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him 'til chapter three..."_

Somewhere in her mind's eye she tried to picture what her own Prince Charming would look like...

Hazel eyes...dark hair that maybe was even a little bit messy.

Wait, how did that image get to be her Prince Charming?

A female student in a large purple hat sang as she passed, _"Now it's no wonder that her name's a flower, her looks have got no parallel!"_

_"But behind that fair facade, I'm afraid she's rather odd,"_ said a Hufflepuff. _"Very different from the rest of us."_

_"She's nothing like the rest of us, she's different from the rest of us, Lily!"_

Unknown to Lily, a group of four Gryffindor boys were coming in from the direction of the Quidditch pitch. Upon seeing Lily, James pushed them all back so he could spy at a distance.

Peter was still amazed about how well Gryffindor Quidditch practice had gone. _"Wow, you didn't miss a goal, Prongs! You're the greatest Chaser in the whole world!"_

_"I know,"_ said James distractedly.

Sirius snickered from his side. _"No beast alive stands a chance against you,"_ he said, and proceeded to cough something that sounded suspiciously like _Moony_.

Peter said, _"No girl for that matter!"_

James was brought back to reality. _"It's true, Wormy. And I've got my sights set on that one!"_

Peter gasped and said, _"Lily Evans?"_ at the same time as Sirius said, "Uh, yeah, we know? Lily this, Lily that, Lily blah blah –"

_"She's the one!"_ James proclaimed. _"The lucky girl I'm going to marry!"_

"Lucky?"

_"The most beautiful girl in the castle!"_

"Do I smell chocolate?" Remus said.

_"She's the best! And don't I deserve the best?"_

Sirius snorted, "You're an idiot."

_"And from the moment when I met her, saw her, I said she's gorgeous and I fell –"_

"Oh no," Remus groaned, "I hate it when you two sing..."

James ignored them and continued, _"In this school there's only she who is as beautiful as me –"_ ("Pfft," said Sirius.) _"–so I'm making plans to woo and marry Belle."_

"Belle?"

"What?"

"James, who is Belle?"

"Did I say Belle?"

"Yes."

"Er...Lily. Marry Lily. Yeah."

"...Who is Belle?"

Around the corner, a group of giggling girls were standing peering and singing not at Lily as everyone else was, but at James.

_"Look there, he goes,"_ they cooed, _"isn't he dreamy? Monsieur Potter, oh he's so cute! Be still, my heart, I'm hardly breathing! He's such a tall dark strong and handsome –"_

In the back of her mind, somewhere, Lily was aware of the annoying rabble in the background, but she kept her nose buried in chapter four of her book as she walked down the marble steps to the Great Hall.

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Good day!"_

_"You call this bacon?"_

_"Hey, let me through!"_

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Good day!"_

_"This bread is stale."_

_"Hey, wait – EVANS!"_

Lily did a magnificent twirl. _"There must be more than this provincial life!"_

_"Just watch, I'm going to make Evans my wife!"_ James told his friends from in the crowd.

This time, the faculty members joined the students in chorus. _"Look there she goes that girl that's strange but special, a most peculiar mademoiselle, it's a pity and a sin, she doesn't quite fit in, but she really is a funny girl – a beauty but a funny girl – she really is a funny girl –_

_"Lily!"_

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Bonjour!"_

"Seriously, what's with all this French?"

_"Bonjour!"_

_"Bonjour!"_

"BONJOUR!" shouted Sirius.


	2. The Mob Song

**Author's Note:** If you can, I recommend singing along, or at least in your head. :)

**Song: **_Beauty and the Beast_: "The Mob Song"

Harry was running through the castle, racing his mind for where on earth Ravenclaw's ancient diadem could be and wondering where in the hell Ron and Hermione were. The last hour was looming, he could tell it would be over soon. And now as he was heading down to the Great Hall with the crowd of people he had met in the Room of Requirement, somewhere beyond the grounds another group of people were assembled.

Voldemort stood with his eyes on the castle, prepared to strike at any moment. Potter was there, he knew it, he could tell, and behind him he ignored the whispering tunes of his Death Eaters' voices, all discussing what would happen if Harry Potter wasn't terminated on this day.

_"The Dark Lord isn't safe until he's dead!"_

_"But we've been stalking him for years!"_

_"We have sacrificed our lives to serve the Dark Lord's appetite!"_

_"He'll wreak havoc on the Dark Lord's world if we let him wander free!"_

Hearing this last sentence, Voldemort turned and looked extremely threatening, silhouetted against the picture of the huge castle in the background. He said, _"Then it's time to kill the Potter boy, it's time to follow me!_

_"Through the forest, through the village, through the darkness and dementors, it's their nightmare but it's our exciting ride,"_ Voldemort chanted. _"Say your prayer and you're there, at the huge gates of this castle and we'll be something truly terrible inside! He's just a boy but he's one with assistance, the professors think they're almost strong as I! Hear them shout, see them pout, but we're not going home 'til he's dead! Good and dead!_ _Kill the boy!_"

Harry stood in the Great Hall before hundreds of students and professors and Order members and said to himself, _"I can't let him do this...,"_ and to the Slytherins, _"If you're not with us, you're against us. Leave...and through the Room of Requirement. We can't have them going off to join Voldemort."_

Off the grounds, Voldemort continued, _"We'll rid the world of Harry Potter! Who's with me?"_

_"I am, my lord!"_

_"I am!"_

_"My lord!"_

_"Cast Lumos, mount your brooms –" _the Death Eaters sang.

Voldemort interrupted them, _"If you fail me you'll regret it –"_

_"We believe in our Lord all the way!"_

People in Hogsmeade were leaning out of their windows, singing, _"Through the mist, through the dark, heads the Dark Lord to the castle and we pray Harry Potter will save the day!"_

_"He's a boy, seventeen, he's a young one, we won't rest 'til he's good and deceased... Sally forth, tally ho, grab your wand and let's go, here we go!"_ the Death Eaters chorused, marching towards the castle.

_"We'll lay siege on the castle and I'll kill the boy myself!"_ Voldemort shouted.

Harry stood still in the Great Hall, watching students pouring out and Voldemort's voice ringing in his ears. _"This is all my fault...Ron and Hermione, where the hell are you? I have to find them, and the horcruxes, before Voldemort does..."_

The remaining students and willing fighters listened to their orders and sang, _"We will fight, but we don't understand it and it scares us, we have never seen this "Dark Lord" face-to-face. Grab your wands, let's be brave, it's for your sisters and your brothers, for your fathers and your mothers –_

_"WE'LL WIN THIS FIGHT!"_

A few remaining fighters were talking amongst themselves, willing to fight but yet hesitant.

_"I knew it, I knew it, it was foolish to think we'd get out of this without fighting."_

_"Maybe it would be better if Potter had never came at all."_

Outside they heard some marching, and looked nervously outside, towards a mob of black that was coming closer and closer to the castle...

_"Could it be?"_

_"Is it he?"_

_"Sacre bleu! Invaders!"_

_"Encroachers!"_

_"And they...have a mirror?"_

_"Someone warn Potter! If it's a fight they want, we'll be ready for them! Who's with me?"_

Voldemort's voice echoed to his Death Eaters, _"Kill whoever you can find, but remember – the boy is mine!"_

Everyone in the castle sang the same song. _"Hearts ablaze, banners high, we go marching into battle, unafraid although the danger's just increased!"_

_The Death Eaters neared the door, and sang, "Raise the flag! Sing the song! Here we come, we're hundreds strong, and a hundred Death Eaters can't be wrong! Let's kill the boy!"_

_"Kill Voldemort!"_

"_Kill the boy!_"

**Author's Note:** Any thoughts?


	3. Arabian Nights

**Author's Note:** I haven't been feeling great lately but hopefully you all love Sirius as much as I do :D.

**Song:** Arabian Nights - Aladdin

"Hey, did you know they don't like Quidditch in the Middle East because they prefer flying carpets?"

James nearly fell out of his chair and stared at Sirius in utter surprise. "Not like Quidditch? That's blasphemy!"

"But they're trying to make magic carpets illegal in Great Britain because they're like Muggle artifacts or something."

"I could totally play Quidditch on a magic carpet."

"The carpet would have to catch the Quaffle for you, you're blind as a bat."

"I _can_ see, you know. That's what these things on my face are for, see."

"Oh, really? And all these years, I thought you were just trying to repel girls, but I never wanted to ask because I thought you'd be offended."

"You're so funny."

"You're so jealous of my funniness, Prongs."

"Your...mother is jealous of your funniness."

"My mother is half banshee."

"I can't tell if you're being serious or not."

"I'm being _udderly_ Sirius."

"Wow, two puns in a row, you're so amazing."

"That would have made more sense if your Animagus form was a cow, Padfoot," added Remus.

"Shut up, Moony. No really, though, she might as well be part banshee. And half hag."

"Well you never talk about your family so for all I knew you could have been telling the truth."

"Well fine. You want to know about where I come from? I'll tell you."

Sirius stood up with his eyes closed and waved his wand in the air so that the lights were dimmed, giving the dorm a misty sort of yellow appearance. With a hum, he rapped his hands on his bed like a drum.

"He's not going to start singing oh Merlin, where is that chocolate –"

"YOU'RE RUINING THE MOMENT, MOONY!"

Sirius cleared his throat and indeed started doing some chant-like singing.

"_Well, I come from a land, from a far away place, where the caravan camels roam_."

"That's highly unlikely –"

"_Where they cut off your ear, if they don't like your face – it's barbaric but hey, it's home!_"

"That's ridiculous!"

"You're riddikulus."

"Three puns in one day. Wooow, impressive."

"_When the winds from the east and the suns from the west and the sand in the glass is right _–"

"The only hourglass you ever pay attention to is downstairs and has rubies in it! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Moony, stop interrupting his song. It's rude."

"_Come on down, stop on by, hop a – broomstick – and fly, to another Arabian night!_

_"Arabian niiiiiiiights, like Arabian daaaaaays _–"

"YOU CAN'T SING!"

"_More often than not are hotter than hot, in a lot of good ways!_ Suggestive eyebrow raise."

"…"

"Everyone! _SONARUS! ARABIAN NIIIIGHTS 'NEATH ARABIAN MOOONS –"_

The entirety of Gryffindor tower jumped violently.

"_A fool off his guard could fall and fall hard out there on the dunes! Quietus."_

"So you're from Arabia, eh?"

"What, are you stupid? I live on some street in London!"

**Author's Note:** Sirius wants you to comment on his "beautiful" singing voice in a review. It's only courteous to oblige him, ya know.


	4. Something There

**Author's Note:** You've probably noticed Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites.

**Song:** _Beauty and the Beast_ - "Something There"

Christmas was nearing and the school was draped in pine fresh greens and Lily was peering around a corner stealthily at a group of four seventh year boys, and at one in particular.

_"There's something sweet, and almost kind,"_ she muttered to herself in a sing-song voice, _"But he was mean, and he was course, and unrefined!"_

She watched as the group laughed vehemently, probably about some stupid prank...but still she noticed James was sitting with more discipline and authority around him...

_"But now he's dear, and so unsure, I wonder why I didn't see it there before."_

Lily jumped violently as she noticed James glance over in her direction and slid out from his view.

With his heart beating a little heavier than usual, he turned to his friends and said, _"She glanced this way! I swear she did!"_

Sirius muttered to himself, _"Or maybe, I dunno, you know, you're just stupid."_ Remus elbowed him sharply, hissing, "You're not helping."

They all stood up and left the Great Hall, heading for the common room. James, who hadn't appeared to have heard them, urged, _"No, it can't be, I'll just ignore...but then, she's never looked at me that way before."_

Leaning against a wall, breathing heavily, Lily half-sang, _"New and a bit alarming...who'd have ever thought that this could be?"_ She saw them coming around the corner, saw James trip slightly when he saw her... _"True that he's no Prince Charming...but there's something in him that I simply didn't see..."_

"Hey, Lily," he said from right in front of her. She hadn't noticed him get there.

"Hey," she replied breathlessly.

"Just wondering if...well if you were going to the common room, maybe you wouldn't mind if I walked with you?" She'd never admit it, but her insides squirmed at the sight of the slight redness in his cheeks.

The Marauders, from a distance, turned to each other as the pair walked off together.

_"Well, who'd have thought?"_ Sirius drawled.

_"Well bless my soul,"_ Peter agreed.

_"Well, who'd have known?_" Remus remarked.

_"Well, who indeed?"_

_"And who'd have guessed they'd come together on their own?"_ Sirius noticed.

_"It's so peculiar!"_

_"We'll wait and see,"_ they all said, _"A few days more, there may be something there that wasn't there before."_

The pair paused, and the remaining Marauders could see them staring into each other's eyes...

_"You know,"_ Remus said, _"Perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before."_

_"There may be something there that wasn't there before..." _Peter repeated in a soft voice.

**Author's Note:** Rhyming problem solution: Substitute it with Sirius foolishness.

I'm taking requests. If I like it, I'll do it. Eventually. Promise.


	5. Hakuna Matata

**Author's Note:** Cannot thank you guys enough for the reviews. Xx-BananaBookworm-xX, this is for you. Thanks for reviewing each chapter, I know you said you like the _Lion King_ :).

This chapter takes place by the time the Marauders have joined the Order, so it's a bit more serious of a chapter. Enjoy! (**By the way** – for anyone who cares, there's a word or two in here that people may not like. I feel like I should warn you...because all the other fics do.)

**Song:** _The Lion King_ – "Hakuna Matata"

If that green spell had been aimed just the slightest bit more to the left, she would have been gone. Lily, his adorable little flower with her red hair and shining eyes... They'd only been members of the Order for a few weeks and already they were an inch from death every other moment. They would be married pretty soon, and for as long as he called himself James Potter, he would protect her even if it meant...well...

But during their third fight against Voldemort's forces, she was hit, and she was immediately brought into St. Mungo's, with Healers crowding around her from every angle holding potions and their wands and telling a very distressed James that he would have to wait.

And there was nothing left for Sirius and Remus to do than to bring him back to the flat they all shared, sit on the couch side by side, and listen to the noises of the Muggle cars zipping by outside, unseen and unacknowledged. That's where they all were now, silent and waiting for one of them to make the next move.

"You know," Sirius said softly, breaking the ice, "You know what he needs, Remus?" Remus just looked at him. "I think he needs a little dose of 'Hakuna matata.'"

Remus grinned slyly, knowingly, back at him, and leaned back against the couch while James sat, emotionless, staring at the coffee table. _"Hakuna matata,"_ Remus said. _"What a wonderful phrase."_

_"Hakuna matata,"_ Sirius encouraged, sitting up in his seat a little straighter, _"Ain't no passing craze..."_

_"It means no worries, for the rest of your days –"_

Remus and Sirius exchanged looks, before looking at James and singing loudly, _"It's our problem free philosophy – Hakuna matata!"_

"Hakuna matata?" James asked, figuring he couldn't just ignore them. What, was that some rubbish in a made up language?

_"Yeah,"_ Remus said. _"It's our motto."_

_"Your motto? Since when?"_

_"Well what's a-motto with you?"_ Sirius almost snickered. To the blank stares he got, he cleared his throat and said, "Sorry, still trying to lighten the mood."

After a pause, Sirius continued, _"Those two words will solve all your problems, mate."_

_"That's right,"_ Remus nodded, _"Take Sirius here – when he was a younger boy –"_

_"When I was a younger boy!"_

_"...You can't sing."_

_"Yes, I can."_

_"He found that his family was extremely cruel."_

_"My cousin Bellatrix especially was really uncool."_

_"He was a sensitive soul!"_

_"And I admit I was afraid, I thought I'd go to Hogwarts and never get lay –"_

_"Sirius!"_

_"OH, THE SHAME!"_

_"H-he was ashamed!"_

_"Thought of changing my name!"_

_"Oh, what's in a name?"_

_"And I got downhearted!"_

_"How did you feel?"_

_"But then I came to Hogwarts!"_

_"He came to Hogwarts!"_

_"And mate,"_ Sirius said, actually sincerely – _"I met you."_

James smiled a little.

Remus and Sirius each grabbed one of his shoulders. _"Hakuna matata!"_ they sang together. _"What a wonderful phrase! Hakuna matata, ain't no passing craze!"_

They looked at James encouragingly, and he sighed. _"It means no worries, for the rest of your days."_

_"IT'S OUR PROBLEM FREE, PHILOSOPHY –"_

_"Hakuna matata!"_ Sirius sang.

_"Hakuuuna matata!"_ Remus chorused.

_"Hakuna matata..."_ James said.

They all sort of settled back down into the couch to wait some more for news about Lily, but this time with small smiles on each of their faces.

"Remind me to tell Lily about you guys singing like that when she gets out."

"I am a great singer."

"No, Padfoot. You're just not."

**Author's Note:** There you go! Proof that Remus doesn't need chocolate in order to make everything better and that Sirius most certainly "can" sing. :)

Lupin can't sing, Lupin can't sing, Lupin cannot sing – hehe, sorry.


	6. Be Our Guest

**Author's Note:** Mon favorite Disney song, and I must say I'm proud of this one :) (I feel kind of proud because I used to take French so I didn't even have to look up some of the words.)

**Song:** _Beauty and the Beast_ – "Be Our Guest"

"Psst..."

Lily swore. Yeah, Lily. Head Girl. Well she couldn't help it, it seemed that every time she wanted to go to her dorm and curl up in a ball under her covers and go to sleep somebody had to stop her in the middle of the hallway for some nonsense she didn't care about.

"Psst, Lily!"

She didn't have any homework tonight...just some scented candles and a bubble bath...

"Psssssssst –"

"I hear you by Merlin!" she snapped, looking around. "What – _who_ is it? Potter, I swear if that's you –"

"No, psst, it's me, Peter!"

Her anger sort of went away immediately, to be replaced by confusion. "Peter?"

"Pettigrew."

"Yeah, I know, I don't know any more Peters."

"Well there's Peter Johnson in Hufflepuff and Richard Peterson the fourth year Ravenclaw who got his head stuck in a secret passageway for three hours last week –"

"Okay, okay, what do you want, _Peter Pettigrew_!"

"Well," he said in a business-like way, coming out of the shadows from a place where she can't believe she didn't spot him, "You should know that I got a message from an anonymous source that there are first years being bullied in the kitchens and that you should go down immediately before they're baked into tomorrow's breakfast."

Lily stared at him. "Are you stupid?"

"Sirius seems to think so, but that's not the point."

"...Is he the source?"

"I think you should go down just to be sure."

"Oh, before the kids get baked into pies?"

"Haven't you ever wondered how the food is so good?"

She sighed. Sorry, bubble bath, sorry delicious scented candles, you will have to wait for another day. "Fine, show me to the kitchens."

"Righto."

After naught but a few steps, Lily said, "Wait, how do you know where the kitchens are?"

"Erm...an anonymous source."

"I'm Head Girl, you know."

"It's just one of those things you stumble upon when you're wandering around with your friends in the total daylight and not at night after hours."

Lily shook her head with a very small smile on her face, one Peter couldn't see, and followed him wordlessly down the floors, into the entrance hall, down the staircase to her left, ending up in front of a huge painting of a bowl of fruit.

Peter reached up to tickle the large painted pear, which squirmed with a silent giggle and the portrait swung open. He swept his hand for her to enter, and she was admittedly a little worried she had allowed Peter to lead her directly into a prank.

It was brightly lit and completely empty of any souls other than she and Peter, who was standing silently behind her like some odd kind of body guard. She suspected she was directly below the Great Hall itself, for there were replicas of the four huge house tables and she could see a head table at the back of the room. She only had a moment to take it all in before the portrait slammed shut behind her and the lights all began to extinguish except for one three-branched candelabra at the end of what was the Gryffindor table.

Without another word from Peter, she nervously looked around and walked towards the candelabra. There weren't any people and she certainly didn't hear any calls of distress from a first year in peril, just the small glow of candlelight...until she heard what sounded like the first note of an accordion song and Sirius Black came out of the shadows.

_"Ma chere mademoiselle Lily!"_ He spread his arms wide open and bowed, his pearly Sirius-Black-perfect white teeth fastened into a huge grin, looking at her with the look of a little boy who was really, _really_, excited about what was coming up. She still felt a little nervous, especially with Peter still standing ominously behind her.

_"It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight! And now, we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair – Peter! – as the kitchen crew proudly presents – your dinner!"_

In her daze-like state of surprise, she barely registered Peter roughly pushing a chair behind her so she was forced to sit down.

"Black, I already ate dinner, an hour ago, you were there."

_"Be...our...guest,"_ Sirius said in some sort of awful sounding French accent, _"Be our guest, put our service to the test! Tie your napkin round your neck, cherie, and we provide the rest. Soup du jour, hot hors d'oeuvres, why, we only live to serve!"_ He pulled a platter out from another shadow, _"Try the grey stuff, it's delicious!_ No, seriously, try it." Lily scooped her finger in it and stuck it in her mouth and grimaced. Horrible pâté. _"Don't believe me, ask the house-elves!"_

Hundreds of house-elves burst up from all around the kitchens – from under tables, inside pots, everywhere, and they entered a perfectly synchronized chant of, _"Aaahhh!"_

_"They can sing, they can dance! After all, they've been to France! And the dinner here is never second best – go on unfold your menu – _Peter, keep up, seriously!_ –"_ Peter this time hastily pushed a piece of lined parchment that said "MENU" in a quick messy scrawl in her hands – _"Take a glance and then you'll be our guest, oui our guest, be our guest!"_

The house-elves started singing. They had remarkably good voices for...small little creatures with big ears and tennis ball eyes. _"Beef ragout, cheese souffle, pie and pudding en flambé!"_

Sirius continued singing, _"We'll prepare and serve with flair a culinary cabaret! You're alone, and you're scared, but the banquet's all prepared! No one's gloomy or complaining while the flatware's entertaining!"_

Dishes, plates, spoons, glasses, all started flying through the air in an organized, flashy fashion. Lily looked to the left and saw a very bored-looking, unamused Remus waving his wand and holding a bar of chocolate in his hand so tightly the skin on his hand was stretching white.

_"We tell jokes, I do tricks, with my fellow Marauders –"_

"_No_, we don't." Remus said stiffly.

_"And it's all in perfect taste that you can bet!"_ some surprisingly deep-voiced house-elves sang before Sirius and the rest joined them: _"Come on and lift your glass, you've won your own free pass to be our guest!"_

_"If you're stressed, it's fine dining we suggest!"_ Sirius sang. _"So be our guest, be our guest, be our guest!"_

The lights all dimmed for a second time, and this time a spotlight was showing on Remus. He looked up with a mixture of surprise and anger on his face and was pulled over so that Sirius could drape his arm around the annoyed little werewolf.

Sirius sent a long, fake-sorrowful look into Remus's eyes and sang, _"Life is so unnerving –"_

_"When your friend is so annoying,"_ Remus responded, trying to push him away.

_"He's not whole –"_

_"Without a dog biscuit –"_

_"Or some chocolate!"_

_"Ah, those good old days, when I was younger!"_

_"You were sad, because there was no me!"_

_"Seven years, we've been –"_

_"Good buddies, tricking Slytherins and firsties!"_

_"Needing more chocolate, or something to distract me!"_

_"Ah, those good old days when we were little, Prongs was not annoying but you walked in and he got boring!"_

_"It's a guest, well it's a guest!"_ Peter said merrily, running up with some kind of human-size tea cozy, _"Sakes alive, well I'll be blessed! Wine's been poured and thank the Lord I've had the napkins freshly pressed!"_

Remus successfully pushed away Sirius and went off back to his corner to continue animating dishes.

Lily wondered how much Sirius paid him.

_"With desert, she'll want tea, and Lily that's fine with me! While the cups do their soft-shoeing, tea will be bubbling and brewing! It'll get warm, piping hot – heaven's sake, is that a spot?"_ Peter said, inspecting the teapot closely, but said a quick _Scourgify!_ _"I cleaned it up, with all the company impressed!"_

He glanced hastily at the three humans in the room and they were just wordlessly watching him. He looked quickly at Lily. _"We've got a lot to do! Is it one lump or two?"_

"Tw–"

_"For you our guest!"_

_"Be our guest!"_ the house-elves chorused.

_"She's our guest!"_

_"Be our guest!"_

Lily thought she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, or maybe from above, and she jumped up a little – they were making an awful lot of noise, enough so that she was surprised the entire castle wasn't down there by now. Remus jumped up too and tried to stop the commotion, but to no avail, for the house-elves continued:

_"Be our guest, be our guest, our command is your request! It's been years since we've had anybody here, and we're obsessed! With your meal, with your ease, yes indeed, we aim to please – while the candlelight's still glowing let us help you, we'll keep going! –"_

"No, no, don't keep going – Padfoot, I heard –"

Sirius shoved his hand in Remus's face and sang with the elves, louder than them all to drown out Remus's voice, _"Course...by...COURSE! One by one! 'Til you shout –"_

_"Enough, I'm done!"_ Remus shouted angrily.

_"Then we'll sing you off to sleep as you digest!"_

Something, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what, whizzed by her head going, _"Aaaahhh!"_

_"Tonight you'll prop your feet up, but for now let's eat up, be our guest!"_

Remus was staring at them all, horrified.

_"Be our guest!"_

But he was swaying a little, too...

"_Be our guest!_"

Lily had to admit she was smiling, too.

"_Please – be – our – GUEST!_"

Sirius pushed Remus out of the way and swept his arms in a huge motion again and bowed, while over a hundred tiny little elves bowed simultaneously behind him.

"That...I have to admit was pretty wonderful," Lily said.

"I knew you'd think so," Sirius said boastfully, "With thanks to _my_ choreographing –"

"Rubbish, I worked with all the house-elves for hours!" said Remus crossly.

Peter added, "I thought my own solo was something."

"Yes, yes," Remus said, "But now it's off to bed, off to bed, before it's after hours –"

"Yeah," Lily said, rising from her chair, "Normally I would laugh and say, 'I couldn't possibly go to bed now!' or something foolish like that, but I'm Head Girl and that's the reason I came down here anyway. Speaking of...was there any particular...reason you did this?"

"Oh," Sirius said nonchalantly, stretching. "We just wanted to convince you that Prongs has changed and isn't a prat and all that jazz."

Remus smacked his head with his palm. "Not that _this_ plan had anything to do with him at all –"

"Oh, come on, this is more fun than any of the things that you had in mind –"

"What's going on in here?"

The portrait opened again from the outside and James himself stepped in, glanced around, and walked over to them.

"Someone tipped me off there was a lot of noise down here, and it wasn't coming from the Hufflepuff common room so I figured I'd be all Head Boy-ish to try to impress Lily but I guess it's just you losers and – oh, hi, Lily."

"Hello," she said, smiling slightly. She ignored that her insides squirmed a little when he ran his hand through his hair nervously.

After a long moment of awkward silence, Sirius shouted, "Great Scott, look at the time!"

"Since when you do say Gr–"

"Come on, Remus and Peter, my good friends, we'd best be off to bed before the Heads give us detention! Ohoho!"

Without another word Sirius pulled Remus and Peter out of the kitchens, but at the last second he poked his head back in to very clearly nod at the only house-elf not yet gone back to begin tomorrow's breakfast. The elf scurried around and gathered certain plates and altogether made a lot of noise while Lily and James had nothing to do but avoid each others gazes and wait for one of them to say, "Well I should start heading back –"

But in the end, when house-elves were done putting down some meals for them and they all disappeared into the shadows once more, James said, "Well if we have all this food..."

"I already ate dinner," Lily said. "And so did you, I saw you all goofing off an hour ago in the Great Hall."

"C'mon," he said, with the cute smile that made her heart melt – n-not that she would admit that.

She just smiled and sat down, both of them under nothing but the light of the candelabra that Sirius had left there.

**Author's Note:** Yeah so it turned into LJ at the end because I guess when it comes down to it, that's all that I love and it's all that I need at Hogwarts, Hogwarts.

I hope you like my Sirius-Remus banter in the middle there. It's probably my favorite thing to write, so you'll be seeing a lot of that.

Part 2 in a few chapters!


	7. Part of Your World

**Author's Note:** :) This includes the reprise, just so ya know. I have a list of the things you guys requested, and if I ever stop getting assigned essays and projects I will get to them :) Thanks for everything, you wonderful people! (I would also like to remind everyone that Snape-ypoo and Lily are FRIENDS in this chapter and always.)

**Song:** _The Little Mermaid_ – "Part of Your World"

"But Dad," eleven-year-old Lily said, looking at her father and speaking with a bit of a whine in her voice as Petunia observed smugly from the corner of the living room. Her mother was being silent in her thought.

"Lily, I just don't see how we can trust what your new friend says," her father said, with a note of apology. "I just don't see how magic could be real."

Her mother nodded her head slightly but didn't stay anything. Perhaps she just didn't want to see her daughter crying.

"But dad, it's real, I know it is! Tuney, you saw me do weird stuff, right?" Lily said, her eyes dangerously close to filling with tears.

"I swear I've never seen her doing anything," Petunia said with wide eyes, looking at her parents. "That boy is making it up and Lily's stupid enough to believe it."

Lily choked back a cry, shook her head, trying to deny even the possibility that Hogwarts isn't real. _Of course it is,_ she told herself. _It must be. Sev couldn't have been lying. I've done some weird stuff before… I must be a witch!_

She ran up the stairs and slammed the door to her bedroom.

Lily looked dismally around her room, at the collectible trinkets sprinkled around on the wooden dressers and tables. There were books lined in neat patterns on the bookshelves lined against the pale blue wall, and her clothes were neatly folded in the grand dresser next to her door. She had a few posters of her favorite bands stuck to the wall with tacks, some souvenirs from trips she had went on with her parents and Tuney. It was everything an average eleven-year-old girl could want in her small provincial life…But it wasn't enough.

She sniffled and wiped her tears away and plopped down on her bed. "Maybe they're right," she said. "Maybe there is something the matter with me. I just don't understand how a world of magic…could be bad."

She sat up and looked around at her collections. "_Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything?_

"_Look at this trove, treasures untold… How many wonders can one bedroom hold? Lookin' around here you'd think, sure, she's got everything!"_

She picked up a little plastic doe sitting on her bedside table. "_I've got stuffed and plastic toys a plenty, I've got posters lined up on each wall. You want collectibles? I've got twenty! But who cares? No big deal… I want more!"_

She stared up at one of her posters of an artist she had always adored, the woman's smile permanently stuck – Sev had told her that in the magic world, all pictures moved. It sounded like pure fantasy, a fantasy she could do nothing but dream of – but it was _real_. It had to be. It was real and she was going there no matter what. Tuney…Tuney was just jealous.

She whispered, "_I wanna be where the wizards are…I wanna see, wanna see some magic, walking around in those – what do they wear? Oh -_ robes." She smoothed out her own boring, Muggle clothes and looked at the ceiling. It was so weird to imagine that in another world, her clothes would be strange-looking. Besides the color of her hair, she had always just blended right in, but with normal clothes she wouldn't. She had lived right here, in this house, all her life, so how could she _possibly_ be able to imagine living in a whole new world?

"_Wearing these clothes, I wouldn't get too far, robes are required for fitting right in, strolling along down – what's its name again?_ Diagon Alley!"

She stood up. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she gave away this opportunity, but she so didn't want to leave her parents or Tuney.

She pulled open the window and leaned out, breathing in the fresh air.

"_Where they cast spells, where they have fun, up where they practice all day in the sun, wandering free, wish I could be part of that world…_

"_What would I give if I could live among the magic, what would I pay to spend a day clenching my wand…Betcha at school, they fly a lot, up in the air atop their broomsticks… bright young women, sick of walking, ready to fly –_"

A breeze blew through the open window and blew her hair back. She closed her eyes and spread her arms and pretended she was flying.

"_And ready to know what the wizards know! Ask 'em my questions, and get some answers! What's a potion, and how does it, what's the word? Brew?_

"_When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that world around us! Wish they agreed… Wish..I could be..._

"_Part of that…world…_"

Lily walked slowly to her bed and turned off the lights, crawling under her warm covers...and the next day, she went to breakfast as normal, got dressed as normal, and maintained her completely normal life...

The next day, she once again walked to her window, but out of some twist of fate, one that she almost felt was playing a horrible, horrible prank on her... there was an official-looking figure in a long _robe_ staring at her house intently, as though mentally confirming this was his destination...

Lily turned around and pressed her back to the wall, breathing in deeply. Suddenly, she thought of Sev, and how he was right, how she was a witch, she was going to go on and do great things and be the greatest witch she could be –

"_What would I give to live where you are..._" she whispered. "_What would I pay...to go to school with you? What would I do to see you, magic, and me? Where would we fly? Where would we run? If we could practice all day in the sun...You, magic, and me, and I could be...part of your world!"_

She heard the knock on the door and bolted down the stairs, her red hair whipping around the corner.

* * *

And then later she was staring at herself straight in the mirror, a bright young _witch_ with magical powers, holding a thick yellow envelope and about to go off to the best school in the entire world.

"_I don't know when, I don't know how –"_ She couldn't stop thinking about how she was a 'Muggle-born', but Sev had reassured her that she would fit in, she wouldn't be outcasted, and that was one of the greatest lights of hope at the end of her tunnel – _"But I know something starting right now..._

_"Watch and you'll see, someday I'll be...part of your world!"_


	8. Hermione Knows Best

**Author's Note:** I am OBSESSED with _Tangled_ right now.

(These chapters are probably only funny if you listen to the song like I do, just so ya know.)

**Song:** _Tangled_ – "Mother Knows Best"

"Harry, we can't just go charging into Hogwarts unprepared! You-Know-Who will find out your there and there are hundreds of people in that school who could all get into extreme trouble and -"

"Hermione, why do you have to be such a stick in the mud?" Ron asked lazily. "What's so hard? We sneak on in, get the Horcrux, we sneak on _out_, and voila!"

"Even if we had it right now, we couldn't destroy it!"

"Come on, Hermione," Harry said. "If we know where it is and _he_ knows that we know that he has them then he's going to be in Hogwarts in a second because he knows that we know."

"But he doesn't know that we know that he knows," Ron pointed out smugly.

"But he knows that we know –"

"Shut up!" Hermione shouted. "We have the goblet that we need to destroy, then there's the snake and there's the one that we still have to find. We need to think and plan and we can't...ugh, I can't talk to you two!"

"Hermione..."

After a few minutes of silence...

"_You want to go to Hogwarts?_" she said. "_Ron, Harry... Look at you two, hasty and not planning, still acting like both of you did in school..._"

"_What do you think we should do, go tanning?_"

_"It's just that we need to stay safe and sound, guys..._

_"I guess I always knew this day was coming, the day you'd want to charge to You-Know-Who!"_

_"I know it sucks, but we need the Horcrux...es."_

_"But Hermione knows best!"_

Ron and Harry exchanged looks.

_"Hermione knows best, listen to your best friend, it's a scary world out there! Hermione knows best, one way or another, something will go wrong, I swear!"_

_"Death Eater thugs, Unforgivable curses,"_ Ron listed.

_"Slytherins and snakes – death,"_ Harry considered.

_"No way..."_

_"Yes!"_

_"But –"_

Hermione continued, _"Also the Ministry, _You-Know-Who_ and Snape and stop, no more, _you'll just upset me!_ Hermione's right here, Hermione will restrain you, guys here is what I suggest! Don't think quickly, stay with 'Mione, Hermione knows best!"_

"Hermione –"

_"Go ahead, get trampled by a rhino!"_

"A rhino?"

_"Go ahead, get your soul sucked out by a dementor!"_

"Ever heard of an Invisibility Cloak?"

"_Me, I'm just your best friend, what do I know? I only let you copy my homework... Go ahead and leave me, I deserve it."_

"No you don't!"

"_Let me die alone here, be my guest! When it's too late, you'll see, just wait, Hermione knows best!"_

Hermione started to jump around the tent while Ron and Harry stood unabashed, watching her.

_"'Mione knows best, take it from Hermione, on your own you won't survive!"_ She looked at what they were wearing, worn Muggle clothes that would stand out horribly in the crowds of Hogwarts. _"Sloppy, underdressed, immature and clumsy please, they'll eat you up alive!"_

"We can change –"

_"Gullible, naïve, positively grubby, stupid and a bit well...hm, vague – plus I believe gettin' kinda chubby –"_

"We've sort of grown the opposite, actually, not much food you know..."

_"I'm just saying, cause I – care about you!"_

"But Hermione –"

_"Hermione understands! Hermione wants to help you, all I have is one requeeeeeest!"_

"Hermione, I just had a vision that You-Know-Who is going to Hogwarts to get the last Horcrux before we do."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"All right, let's go."

Ron and Harry nodded.

_"Just don't forget it! You'll regret it – Hermione knows best!"_

**Author's Note:** I have a list of requests and I'm totally going to do all of them at some point.  
Sorry that for this one I didn't really...do much. I sort of typed and uploaded it on a whim.


	9. Kiss de Girl

**Author's Note:** This takes place directly after the Be Our Guest chapter. Oh mah goodness.

I just got so many wonderful reviews from last chapter and I just want to thank you all, my face is still frozen in a sloppy little grin :D I really hope this one doesn't disappoint!

**Song:** _The Little Mermaid_ – "Kiss The Girl"

"Prongs! Lily!" Sirius had shouted, bounding up to them in the dog-like manner that he was so well-known for.. "There's a first year being tortured at the Black Lake but I can't go out and save him because I'm not a Head! I guess you two better join up and go out and get him under the romantic light of the moon!"

So after a few minutes of debate and wondering if there actually was a first year in peril, Lily decided that they better check it out just in case and that James was coming with her.

"I don't know why you believe him, Lily, because there is _never_ a first year when he says there is. It's his favorite excuse."

"Well well, Mr. Head Boy, we are not taking any chances."

"Really, the odds of their being a first year are -"

Lily looked at him. "We're going! Come on!" She grabbed his hand, but in the darkness he couldn't see her blush. "Now if Sirius is trying to pull something like another huge, nicely choreographed dance number with your reluctant and very untalented friends? What then?" He didn't answer. "James?" She looked around at him and saw in the light of the lit windows of the castle and the almost full moon that he was looking toward the lake with an odd expression.

"Maybe, uh, let's just go inside, there's nothing out here," he said quickly.

"No! James! Come on!" She grabbed his hand and tried pulling him to the lake but he instead pulled her easily towards the castle.

"Come on, we're not supposed to be outside at night –"

"You were a first year once, too!"

"I got out of all my messes."

"You're being a baby!"

"What if there are werewolves?" James said smugly, assuming he had won, but Lily just looked at him crossly.

"Then Remus wouldn't have been singing in the kitchens with Sirius."

She smirked at him as he shook his head and grinned a little.

"Touche, Lily Evans. You're going first, though." Lily nodded.

"_Lumos!_" she murmured and walked away slowly towards the lake. "If this is a lie your friends are all getting three weeks of detention from the Head Girl..."

"Then get ready to do so."

Lily stood strongly and stopped near the lake. She didn't notice James groan as she said, "O-Okay, if anyone is hurting a first year you better make yourselves known right now!" She waited nervously as her fellow Head stood beside her with his head in his hands. "James!" she hissed. "Help me!"

"You poor unfortunate soul," he sighed. "Look at the lake you adorable little person."

Lily blushed as she looked at the lake and saw a white sign with a huge black arrow pointing past a group of trees. She stood frozen in her tracks with confusion – why would the Slytherins torturing a first year on the moonlit grounds want them to walk into the site? – but in her confusion she saw James walk coolly to the sign muttering something like "Let's just get this bloody thing over with..." and she hurried behind him, peering as much as she could over his shoulder.

"Do you see anything?"

"Oh, no," he replied, "just another arrow pointing into a rowboat with a bouquet of lilies and a jar of grape jam sitting in it. I swear, could he get any more obvious?"

"...What?" She stepped around him and saw what he described – they stood listening and heard no one else behind him. "Do you think it's a trap?" she whispered.

"I still think we should just go to the castle."

"No, come on let's – let's just check it out..." She pulled him over to the rowboat and saw a note tacked to the wood, which she ripped off and looked at suspiciously. It said:

GET IN.

"Really, I mean I know his mother never taught about subtlety but this is just over the top."

"No! You're crazy! It's the Slytherins out to get us!" she whispered. "But we have to go, don't we?"

"Lily I seriously don't think –"

She pushed him in the rowboat, not willing to admit that her heart was beating a little faster at the touch of his hand, and they sat down curiously. She jumped when the boat started moving.

"What?" she screamed. "What the hell is going –"

Out of the black and blue and moonlit green of the trees a _bum bum bum_ of drums started beating. She looked around wildly. However, from where she was sitting, she couldn't hear one little detail that James could.

From in the depths of the trees, he heard what sounded like a whisper, but only because they had already gone so far from shore.

And these voices sounded an awful lot like his best friends.

"Percussion?"

"Already going."

"Oh, sorry. Strings!"

String instruments began to play from nowhere.

"Winds!"

Pan flutes blew from somewhere on her right.

"Words..."

"Oh, Merlin save me," James muttered to himself, trying to block out the voices that Lily obviously hadn't heard.

"What?" she said curiously. She just wasn't noticing, and as the boat turned slowly around James saw a figure emerge from the trees and wink at him.

Sirius was standing in a giant lobster suit and winking at him.

Oh dear, sweet Merlin.

And in tune with the music, of course, Sirius began to sing.

"_There you see her, sitting there across the way. She don't got a lot to say, but there's __something about her."_

"Did you hear something?" Lily said curiously, looking to her left and right but not behind her in the direction of Crab-Sirius.

_"And you don't know why, but you're dying to try, you wanna kiss the girl."_

"James, do you know what's going on?" she asked. He couldn't imagine why she couldn't hear the music. When he saw a jet of light fly out of the trees somewhere near Sirius, however, he recognized from experience the spell of _Muffliato_.

"Uh, Lily...," he said, a little unsure how to explain anything and not _quite_ sure what was going on.

_"Yes, you want her. Look at her, you know you do."_ James glanced at Lily, who was still holding her wand steady and alert for Slytherins, and glanced away quickly.

_"Possible she wants you, too, there is one way to ask her."_

There was a huge splash, and they felt the vibration of something much bigger than a fish and rougher than the giant squid ram into the boat.

_"It don't take a word, not a single word, go on and kiss the girl."_

Over Lily's shoulder, James watched as Sirius waved his claw to his right, and Remus (dressed in a ridiculous looking seagull suit to match the crab) emerged from the trees as Sirius sang, _"Sing with me now."_

From beside the boat a great yellow figure leaped up like a dolphin and fell back into the water, meanwhile going, _"Shalalalalala!_" It took James a moment to realize that this yellow fish with blue stripes was Peter.

_"My oh my!"_ Sirius sang. _"Look at this, Prongs too shy, he ain't gonna kiss the girl, Remus!"_

_"Shalalalalala,"_ Remus said in a completely flat, monotone voice.

_"Ain't Moony sad? Ain't it a shame, too bad Prongs gonna miss the girl."_

The music hushed slightly as the musicians paused to get their act together for the next verse, and for a moment Crab-Sirius disappeared from view.

"I don't see them anywhere, but what's with all the instruments playing?" Lily inquired, unknowlingly.

"Err..."

"It's the Slytherins, I'm sure of it, I mean I didn't want to be prejudice because that doesn't get anyone anywhere but –"

"Lily..."

"But I don't see what this could be besides a trap, and I don't see your friends anywhere –"

"Lil..."

Lily fell silent as she listened intently, and while she couldn't hear it, Sirius began to sing again.

_"Now's your moment, floating in the – er, Black Lake, Prongs ya better do it soon, no time will be better -"_

_"Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya!"_ Peter rang out as he leaped in the air in his fish suit again.

_"Silencio!"_ Sirius shouted pointing his wand at Lily, who yelped. _"She don't say a word, and she won't say a word until ya kiss the girl."_

Lily jumped so violently that she pushed herself forward into James's arms, still looking around for Slytherins. Behind her back, James waved his hand at Sirius to knock it off, but the latter (who probably knew very well what his best friend was motioning) took a moment to take his crab claw off before giving him a thumbs up. James rolled his eyes.

_"Shalalalalala!"_ Remus and Peter both sang, although Remus was looking worried. At least _someone_ had to have some sense.

_"Don't be scared!"_ Sirius sang, _"You've got the mood prepared, go on and kiss the girl!"_

Lily was trying to speak. The poor girl still thought they were under attack.

_"Shalalalalala!"_

_"Don't stop now! Don't try to hide it, how you wanna kiss the girl."_

Peter was splashing around beside them and Remus was trying to wrestle the claws off Sirius as the latter tried to keep singing.

_"Shalalalalala!"_

_"Float along! And listen to the song, the song say kiss the girl!"_

_"Ooh oh oh! Shalalalalala!"_

_"Music play! Do what the music say, go on and kiss the girl."_

_"Kiss her!"_

_"Kiss her!"_

"Please just end this, Prongs."

_"Go on and kiss the girl."_

_"Kiss her!"_

_"Kiss her."_

_"Go on and kiss the girl."_

"Oh my god," James said putting his head in his hands, trying to ignore all the voices.

"_Go on and kiss the girl."_

Lily was groping for his hand, still trying to figure out what was going on.

_"Go on and kiss the giiiiiiirl."_

Suddenly, the music was stopping and the boat was shaking and Remus and Sirius were disappearing back into the woods and, as if it was just sinking in, Lily and James were inching closer and closer and closer -

Until Peter rammed into the boat and it flat out tipped over.

Coughing and spluttering that the water was suddenly emerging them, James helped Lily to shore and they kneeled on the beach, so confused about what had just happened that there was nothing to say.


	10. Poor Unfortunate Soul

**Author's Note:** Some of the dialogue is directly from chapter 35 of OOTP so I'll just clarify that I do not own Harry Potter and this is purely for fun. Reviewsplz :)

**Song:**_ The Little Mermaid_ – "Poor Unfortunate Souls"

His ears had been ringing since his five companions' _Reducto_ curses flew at the countless shelves alight with pearly white glass balls, the prophecies as Lucius Malfoy had called them. Everything he had been through today – his History of Magic O.W.L., trying to get a hold of Sirius in Umbridge's fire, helping Hermione lead the toad into the forest – it was like a foggy blur that flew past in his short term memory, lots of moving images swirled together so that the colors became one, until he opened his eyes again and remembered that he was in the middle of a fight with a band of Death Eaters who were about to kill him and all of his friends. And even during the moments when she wasn't in the same room, he could hear Bellatrix Lestrange's cackling Azkaban laughter ringing even louder.

He couldn't imagine how they would all possibly get out of this alive. He had been tricked by his own bloody dream to come to the _Ministry of Magic_, and now they were racing from room to mysterious room without a clue of how they would actually escape this inevitable death. But as long as his name was Harry, he would not let these people, his best friends in the entire world, die because of a foolish mistake he had made.

Strange how right now he was sprinting away from the very friends he sought to protect, the friends who had fallen or were cursed or with a broken ankle or being strangled by a cauliflower-like brain. Followed by Death Eaters and praying to Merlin that none of his friends would try to come and help.

He burst through doors with the prophecy clutched in his hand and his wand tightly gripped in the other, and suddenly he found that he was in the room with the ragged veil swaying in a nonexistent wind.

He scrambled as far as he could, and when he turned around again he ignored the whispers coming from the other side of the curtain and stared at the tiny army of men and women in long black robes and masks. With one last glance at the curtain, he tried to force back any biting curiosities he might have had about it and swallowed before Lucius Malfoy spoke.

"Potter, Potter," he hissed. "Time to give it up. Hand me the prophecy now, like a good little boy..."

"Let the others go, and I'll give it to you!"

In response, the group of Death Eaters laughed collectively, a gruff, dark laugh – but Bellatrix Lestrange's cackling echoed throughout the room and bounced off the dark walls.

And somewhere, a door swung open and Neville, whom Harry had hoped dearly was still trying to help Ron fight off the brain, was scrambling down to Harry's side. His broken nose was still affecting his speech as he shouted, "He's dot alone!"

"Neville, no –" Harry started, but was immediately interrupted by Lucius Malfoy's irritatingly calm voice.

"Longbottom, isn't it?"

"Longbottom!" Bellatrix cried. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!" Somewhere in the background a Death Eater shouted, "Someone Stun him!"

"No, no, no," Bellatrix shouted, her eyes brighter than they had been. "No, let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents... Unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy –"

Without waiting for any of them to make a move, Bellatrix pointed her wand at Neville and shouted, "_CRUCIO!_"

And as Neville writhed on the floor and Harry tried to figure out what to do, Bellatrix began to sing.

"_I admit that in the past I've been a nasty, they weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch!_" She flicked up her wand and looked directly at Neville's shaking form at her feet. "_But you'll find that now a days, I've escaped from my dark days, escaped my prison and now I've made a switch! To this –_"

She pointed her wand directly at Neville again, and looked around at everyone else. "_And I fortunately know a bit Dark magic, it's a talent that I always have possessed, and wittle Potter, please don't laugh – I use it on behalf of the Dark Lord and the purebloods and depressed – pathetic_," she added in an audible whisper to the Death Eaters standing behind her, who laughed thickly once again.

"_Poor unfortunate souls! In pain, in need! This one's heritage is filthy, that one asks for what he gets, and do I hurt them? Yes indeed!_

_"These poor unfortunate souls! So sad, so true! They come flocking 'round my wand and crying 'No more, Bellatrix, please!' and do I hurt them? Yes I do!"_

Bellatrix struck a dramatic pose before she _Crucio_ed Neville again quickly.

"_Now, it's happened once or twice, someone couldn't pay the price, and I'm afraid I had to rake em 'cross the coals!_

_"Yes, I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole I've been a saint to those poor unfortunate souls!"_

"Yes," Lucius Malfoy whispered, his eyes narrow. "Have we got a deal, Potter?"

"If I give you the prophecy," Harry said slowly, trying to buy time, "You'll just kill us all anyway."

"Life's full of tough choices, isn't it, Potter!" Bellatrix cackled.

"Oh, and there is one more thing," Malfoy drawled.

"What?" Harry said sharply.

"We haven't discussed the subject of payment!" Bellatrix cried.

"What are you -"

"The Dark Lord needs more than just the prophecy, you know. He doesn't want much, just a token, really, a trifle! What he wants of you is for you to come with us like a good wittle boy and then maybe we'll just leave your friends here to be found by someone in the Ministry!"

Harry had expected this. But if he did give them the prophecy, he wouldn't have a choice, anyway. They would grab him or overpower him and bring him to Voldemort who would...

"But without me how can they -"

"Someone will find them, boy, don't you worry. Don't underestimate the power of the Unspeakables who work here! Ha!" Bellatrix shouted.

Harry stood there, hearing nothing but Neville's deep breathing from the torture breaking the silence. Slowly, he held out his hand to give Lucius Malfoy the pearly glass ball when a clamor up above them made everyone turn. Through a door above them burst five members of the Order – Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Sirius Black, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

At the very sight of two members of Bellatrix's family coming in, she began to cackle like a madman before she started aiming spells at whomever would challenge her.

"_You know, Death Eaters do not like a lot of blabber, we tend to think gossipers are a bore! But our spells are effective and get people talking and after all, Potter, what else should idle blabber be for?_"

Bellatrix knocked Tonks, whom she had been battling, down and with a sense of eagerness about him, Sirius jumped in to fight her in Tonks's place after telling Harry to escape.

"SHUT UP!" he shouted, sending an orange spell at her that she jumped away from.

"_Come on, my little cousin, no conversation! True gentlemen should avoid it when they can! I like to dote and swoon and fawn on a cousin who's withdrawn! It's he who holds his tongue that is a man!_"

For all this time, she had been singing directly to Harry, but now that she was fighting someone that she hated more than anyone else, she focused all her attention on him. As Harry was trying to escape with Neville and the prophecy smashed, Harry paused and couldn't help but watch Sirius and Bellatrix fighting until Neville shouted, "DUBBLEDORE!"

And even as Dumbledore ran down the steps and the Death Eaters started scrambling away as fast as they could, Bellatrix and Sirius paid no attention.

"_COME ON, you poor unfortunate soul, Potter!_" she screamed, "_Go ahead! Give it to me! I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day, it won't cost much, just the prophecy!_"

The two were the only duelers now, but neither of them were showing signs of tiring. Harry's heart was pounding and he knew that either something very good or very bad was going to happen...

"_You poor unfortunate soul! It's sad, but true! If you want to cross the bridge my sweets you've got to pay the toll, take a gulp and take a breath and go ahead, give it a roll! Malfoy, Dolohov, now I've got him, boys,"_ she added in a whisper. "_The boss is on a roll! This poor –" _she sent a spell at Sirius, "_Un-"_ and another "_FOR-"_ and another... "_TUNATE SOUUUL!"_ And as she finished singing and she started laughing, a spell hit Sirius squarely on the chest and...


	11. Prince Ali

**Author's Note:** 'Cause baby, I was born this way.

**Song:** _Aladdin -_ "Prince Ali"

"Lily, stop eating like that. You'll explode."

Lily furrowed her eyebrows and grumbled, "I'm hungry."

Alice frowned back at her. "Well, don't blame me when you combust and poor old James Potter tries to kill himself because he can't stand to live without you."

...

Lily went back to her food.

The sky of the Great Hall was sunny and bright. Whenever Lily looked up she saw a few bright puffy clouds morphing into amusing shapes as though something up there with a sense of humor was punching them like a pillow to fluff it. As Lily lowered her green eyes back down to her plate and raised a bit of omelette to her mouth, however, something of great force pushed the huge oak doors of the Great Hall open and she promptly dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter.

In her peripheral vision she clearly saw Professor McGonagall stand up, prepared to start punishing a group of four rowdy fifth year Gryffindor boys – or, er, any other rule-breakers.

Before anyone had a chance to investigate, however, ten golden trumpets were conjured in mid air, five on each side of the doors. They all played in unison before accompanying drums began to beat and bound.

And then groups of first years on at all sides and corners of the Hall stood up as one movement and began to sing.

_"Make way! The Marauders!"_

_"Say hey, for Marauders!"_

And Peter Pettigrew ran around a corner and through the doorway wearing a poorly crafted turban made out of a towel and strange pointed shoes. He, too, began to sing.

"_Hey, clear the way in the old Great Hall, hey you! Let us through! It's two bright new stars, oh come! Be the first of your House to meet their eyes!_

_"Make way! Here they come! Ring bells! Bang the drums! Why, you're gonna love these guys!"_

And of course nothing happened next besides Sirius and James riding into the Great Hall on an elephant. Er – actually, (they wouldn't let anyone else know it but) their resources had failed last minute and they had to have a great magicked elephant controlled by no one other than...Remus.

Sirius and James shouted, _"Don't worry! It is just we! Padfoot and Prongs!"_

_"Genuflect, show some respect, down on one knee!"_ Peter continued. _"Now, try your best to stay calm, brush up your Sunday salaam, and come and meet their spectacular coterie!"_

Every single first year in the Hall except the Slytherins stood up simultaneously and began marching as one unit around their House's table.

_"Princes, we! Mighty are we! Padfoot and Prongs!"_ James and Sirius cried with the most gleeful looks on their face. They looked as though they had been planning this for years.

_"Strong as ten regular men, definitely!"_ Peter sang, and Sirius lifted a bunch of inflatable life-size dolls above his head.

At the Hufflepuff table, a particularly shrimpy looking first year said in a small, brave voice, _"They faced the scary beyond!"_

_"One hundred Death Eaters with wands!"_ a red-headed girl shouted. She looked like she wanted to cry.

_"Who sent those goons to their lord?"_ a Ravenclaw said, pushing his glasses up before every first year sang as a whole, _"The Marauders!"_

All of the first years sat down and instead the second years stood up. The boys sang, _"They've got seventy-five golden camels!"_ James picked up a few stuffed camels and threw them with amazing accuracy at the heads of a few Slytherins.

_"Don't they look lovely, Remus?"_ Peter said loudly.

_"Purple peacocks, they've got fifty-three!"_ the girls sang.

_"Fabulous, Peter I – love the – feathers –"_ Remus replied with effort from keeping the great elephant upright with magic.

_"When it comes to exotic type mammals,"_ Peter soloed, _"Have they got a zoo! And I'm telling you-"_

_"It's a world class menagerie!"_ everyone sang.

_"Marauders we! Handsome are we! Padfoot and Prongs!"_ James and Sirius shouted again.

Out of nowhere, a group of girls stood up from the Gryffindor table and started singing. The Marauders all jumped; this hadn't been planned.

_"There's no question that they are alluring! Never ordinary, never boring!"_ the girls squealed.

_"That physique!"_ Peter cried. When everyone looked back at him they were surprised to see him dressed like a girl. _"How can I speak? Weak at the knees!"_

_"Everything about them just plain impresses!"_

_"Well, get on into that square –"_

_"They are winners, they're whizzes and wonders!"_

_"Adjust your robes and prepare –"_

_"They're about to pull my heart asunder!"_

_"To gawk and grovel and stare, Marauders we!"_ Peter finished.

_"And I absolutely love the way they dress!"_

_"They've got ninety-five white Persian monkeys!"_ the second year boys sang.

_"They've got the monkeys! Let's see the monkeys!"_ the first year boys chorused.

_"And to view them they both charge no fee!"_ the first year girls sang, before the second year girls continued.

_"They're generous! So generous!"_

_"They've got second years, flunkies, and firsties!"_

_"Proud to work for them!"_

_"They bow to their whim! Love serving them! They're just lousy with loyalty –"_

A group of Ravenclaw girls stood up and shouted, _"To Siri!"_

A group of Hufflepuffs did the same, but instead said, _"And Jamesie!"_

The elephant hadn't really moved, because it couldn't get down the tiny gap between the House tables, but all the first and second years had been running and dancing and prancing around as they sang.

Sirius and James once again shouted, but slower this time, _"It is we! Amorous we! Padfoot and Prongs!"_

Peter had somehow ended up to Alice and said, _"Prongs said your best friend was a sight lovely to see!"_

Lily narrowed her eyes.

Peter ran up the row to the Head table before he turned around and addressed the Great Hall, _"And that, good people, is why they got dolled up and dropped by!"_

_"With sixty elephants, llamas galore!"_

_"With their bears and lions, a brass band and more!"_

_"With their forty first years –" _the first years all jumped on the tables –

_"Their cooks, their bakers –"_ hundreds of House Elves Apparated into the Great Hall to start dancing around with the second years.

_"Their birds that warble on key!"_ and three dozen owls swooped through the hall right on cue, dropping mail to their respective owners.

_"Make way!"_

_"Marauders, we!"_

Once all the owls had left, great quantities of fireworks lit up the fake sky of the Great Hall, and slowly the trumpets and drums and other instruments died down so that Sirius and James could climb down the elephant and quickly pull it out of the Great Hall as if they wanted no one to notice. All the first years and second years returned to their respective places at their tables and there was nothing for anyone to do but blink and try to pretend that didn't happen. The great oak doors closed.

McGonagall was still standing up, obviously very confused, as the doors opened again and the four Marauders walked in nonchalantly to eat their breakfast.

"That was, er...something," Alice said to them, but they all looked up, visibly confused.

"What was?" Peter asked.

Alice gave them a blank stare.

"The...musical number?"

The four exchanged looks. "Do you know what she's talking about?"

"No."

"Crazy."

"Where are the flapjacks?"

"Over there."

"Oh, I see them."

Lily shook her head and picked up her fork with the bit of now-cold omelette. "So did you have to plan that all around the arrival of the owls?"

* * *

**Author's note:** :D


	12. Be Prepared

**Author's Note:** I'm actually not looking forward to DH part two as much as I should be. I am going to the midnight premiere though. Never been to one before.

**Song:** _The Lion King:_ "Be Prepared"

There was a small, suspended light in the upper floors of Malfoy Manor that tall hooded men and women glanced at before making their ways inside. They marched in silently and sat down with no hesitation in clearly designated chairs situated around a long table. Many of them had their heads down and their eyes covered as they waited for an announcement by the pale man at the head of the table, the announcement that took so long to come that it seemed like it never would. Not a single one of them, however, allowed a flicker of impatience to cross their face because they knew that it would be immediately detected.

For what seemed like it might as well be hours, the men and women sat there until a final few people arrived and the snake-like man at the head of the table ceased his unblinking penetration of the almost movement-less dark air in front of him and leaned forward slightly. Everyone around the table snapped to attention at once.

"What is the news?" his soft voice said quietly. Everyone heard him.

"My Lord," a short, wheezy man said. "We have been observing several members of the Order of the Phoenix and have very nearly discovered the hide outs of a few. We should be getting back to you shortly about their whereabouts and we can launch a full attack."

Voldemort nodded slightly and turned his attention to the next person who spoke, a man with blunt features. "The attack on the group of Muggles two days ago was covered well by our insiders in the Ministry. They managed to convince the rest of the fools over there that it was an accident."

Again, Voldemort nodded the slightest bit and no one else spoke. After a moment, he said, "Is there no more news? Nothing more to report, truly?"

No one said a word.

"Very well," he whispered. He leaned his head back for a moment, almost as if he were sniffing the air. After a moment's silence, he looked seriously at his followers.

_"I know that your powers of retention are as weak as a warthog's backside_," he addressed them, _"But thick as you are, pay attention, my words are a matter of pride."_

He stood up swiftly, so that his might may be emphasized – or perhaps to get a better view of their faces. _"It's clear from your vacant expressions, the lights are not all on upstairs. But we're talking ministers and successions; Even you can't be caught unawares!"_

The Death Eaters all stood up as one unit, minus a few stragglers – like a stringy, pale boy with blonde hair and his mother – and turned towards their Dark Lord. Their faces were glowing ominously from the light of the great fire behind Voldemort.

_"So prepare for a chance of a lifetime!"_ Voldemort told his followers. _"Be prepared for sensational news!" _He began to circle the table, singing as he went, _"A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer –"_

_"But where do we feature, my lord?"_ the gaunt-looking Bellatrix asked keenly.

_"Just listen to teacher, Bella. I know it sounds sordid but you'll be rewarded when at last I am given my dues – and injustice deliciously squared, be prepared!"_

_"Yeah!"_ a tall Death Eater goon stood up. _"Be prepared! Heheh, we'll be prepared, heh –_" and at the look on his masters face he straightened up, and said, _"Erm, for what, my Lord?"_

_"For the death of the minister!"_

_"Scrimgeour? Is he sick?"_

_"No, fool, we're going to kill him. And Potter, too."_

_"Great idea!"_ Bellatrix cackled insanely. _"Who needs a minister?"_

_"No minister! No minister! La-la-la-la-la-la –"_

_"IDIOTS!"_ Voldemort boomed surprisingly. _"There will be a minister!"_

_"My Lord, but you said –"_

_"I will be minister! Stick with me and you will never go murder-hungry again!"_

_"Yaaay!"_ many of the Death Eaters cried. _"Long live the minister!"_

The entire group chorused, _"Long live the minister! Long love the minister!"_

Every Death Eater began marching in an enchanting sync around the table and Voldemort, and they all began to chant, crisply and concise:

_"It's great that we'll soon be connected with a king who'll be all time adored."_

_"Of course, quid pro quo, you're expected,"_ Voldemort added, _"To take certain duties on board._

_"The future is littered with prizes and though I'm the main addressee, the point that I must emphasize is: YOU WON'T GET A KILL WITHOUT ME!"_

Every voice in the room was now singing.

_"So prepare for the coup of the century!"_

_"Oooh!"_

_"Be prepared for the _murkiest_ scam!"_

_"La la la!"_

_"Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning decades of denial is simply while I'll be king undisputed, respected, saluted, and seen of the wonder I am!"_

_"Aaaaaaaah!"_

_"Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared –"_

_"– ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh –"_

_"Be prepared!"_

_"Yes, our teeth and ambitions are bared, be prepared!"_

Somehow everyone had ended up directly in front of the chair they had been sitting in previously and sat down as one uniform number, once again directing their eyes down to the polished table and awaiting the next address from their Dark Lord.

**Author's Note:** I'm pretty sure I'm going to be reading Voldemort in Scar's voice from now on. Ohohoho.


	13. When Will My Life Begin

**Author's Note:** So I FINALLY got out of school (Next stop: senior year!) and I was playing Pokemon and thinking of what song I should do next and I realized what silly twist I could give this song. This chapter will be relatively _completely_ OOC if you want to be a stickler, but honestly if you haven't come to expect that of this fic, you're crazy.

Thank you for all your beautiful reviews, everyone. SIRIUSLY.

**Song:** _Tangled_ – "When Will My Life Begin"

Number 12, Grimmauld Place had seen darker days, but the fine film of dust on the untouched curtains and the moldy cabinets and boggart-infested cabinets didn't go unnoticed by one of it's three full-time residents. But the damned thing was, Sirius _hated_ cleaning.

Both Molly and Remus had been constantly pressuring him to keep up with the house. And he had thought Moony was his friend, _huh._ Well, Sirius would argue right back, that's _Kreacher's_ job, and he isn't doing a very good one.

"He's old, and he's tired," Remus had rationed one day, to which Sirius replied:

"And he doesn't know a speck of dirt from one of my mother's old sweaters, but why should that mean I have to clean up?"

"You're being a child."

"_You're_ being a child!"

"Remember our dorm? In Hogwarts? That was nice and clean and I didn't see you messing it up then! Too much," Remus had added.

And to get out of the subject, Sirius had hastily lied, "Our..dorm? Um...I'm afraid Azkaban wiped out that memory."

And Remus had rolled his eyes knowingly and Sirius had scratched his friend behind the ears before being reminded that _he_ was the dog and that had been the end of the conversation. When Remus brought it up again a week or two later, Sirius made up some story about how he and Prongs had once pledged never to clean anything ever again, and called Remus a blasphemer when he accused Sirius of lying.

Long story short, Sirius Black _hated_ cleaning.

Sirius and Remus never mentioned it again, until one day...

"You haven't even washed these glasses!"

"Kreacher."

"You're a wizard!"

"Not my job, Moony."

"It's just a flick of your wand! Swish! Flick! _Scourgify!"_

"If it's that easy then why don't you do it?"

"Because it's not my house!"

"I knew you were a baby."

"And you're a stupid mutt!"

"Remus, I am a purebred, I ensure you."

"You have fleas."

"Go howl at the moon."

Remus furiously slashed his wand through the air in attempt to clean all the dirty dishes and ended up smashing one against the wall. He quickly repaired it.

"Fine," Sirius sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should clean."

"You – what?"

"Here, sit down. Let me fix you a drink."

"I...okay?" Remus obliged as Sirius got up and opened a few cabinets. He had his back to Remus as he prepared some drinks.

"Seriously, Moony. You're right. I should clean up more often and I shouldn't leave it all to Kreacher. Lily would yell at me if she knew what this house looked like anyway," he added as he walked over to Remus and handed him a drink. "I learned how to make those when I was about twenty. Some Muggle drink."

Remus hesitated at first, but knew that there was no point resisting. He took a sip.

He watched Sirius sit down across from him with a smile that made him look like he _was_ twenty again. Some of the looks he had received from Azkaban seemed to clear up and for a moment he looked...like...he...was laughing...wait...what was...

And Remus knew nothing more.

When he woke up two hours later, it was in a vaguely familiar room with very little light. There seemed to be some kind of..face..swimming strangely above him somewhere... grinning... laughing, even...

And when Remus blinked a few more times, he realized that it was Padfoot. Not Sirius, but his dog form. Sitting on Remus's chest. Panting and drooling. On Remus. Oh, Merlin here we go.

Remus looked around and glanced at the clock. Seven am. But – what? There was no way, he had only gone to sleep about two hours ago and the sky was just as bright as it had been – had he really slept that long? Before he could push off Sirius, the dog leaped off and transformed, straightened up, and turned around at Remus.

They locked eyes for a minute before guitar chords started coming out of a door to Remus's left. A few lines repeated before Sirius began to sing.

_"Seven am, the usual morning line up,"_ Sirius sang, pulling Remus by the hand to his feet and out the door into the hallway. _"Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floors all clean!" _He waved his wand so that at once, brooms and mops started sweeping and laundry began washing and folding itself in mid air. _"Polish and wax, do laundry and mop and shine up, sweep again, and by then, it's like seven fifteen –"_

"That didn't take fifteen minutes –"

_"And so I'll read a book!"_ his friend shouted, pushing some seven or eight books into Remus's arms, before sprinting into the hallway where his mother's shrieking portrait hung. _"Or maybe two or three, I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery!"_ He waved his wand as a few new paintings hung themselves on the wall. _"I'll play guitar and knit and cook and basically just wonder when will my life begin!"_

"Sirius, what are you doing!"

"Cleaning!"

Remus observed the havoc erupt all over the dining room of number twelve, Grimmauld Place as Sirius began to leap around the room and sing some more.

_"Then after lunch it's puzzles and darts and baking!"_

The timer on the stove went off, timed perfectly.

_"Papier-____mâché, a bit of ballet, and chess!"_

At least they do play chess in the Wizarding world, Remus thought grudgingly, as opposed to papier-mâché and darts. Somewhere to his left he heard a few pieces of Wizard's Chess knock each other off the board.

___"Pottery and ventriloquy, candle-making!"_

A pottery wheel was spinning by itself and on it seemed to be an already baked clay figure of Harry as a puppet. In front of it was a sign that said "Geddit, Moony? Potter? Harry? Pottery? Geddit? Nah, I know you get it." that was lit up by a few homemade candles.

___"And then I'll stretch –"_ Sirius tried to stretch his leg up in what looked like a completely failed, complicated yoga pose ___" –Maybe sketch –"_ a painting canvas appeared out of thin air, ___"Take a climb, sew a dress!"_

And of course, Remus's robes turned pink. At least Sirius didn't have the nerve to put him in an actual dress, but this was still cutting it too close.

___"And I'll reread the books if I have time to spare! I'll paint the walls some more, I'm sure there's room somewhere! And then I'll brush and brush and brush and brush Buckbeak's hair –"_

_"He has feathers!"_

___"Stuck in the same place I've always been! And I'll keep wondering, and wondering, and wondering, and wondering, when will my life begin!"_

Remus had had it. He flicked his wand at his own robes until they turned back to their grey, morose color, threw down the books he was still holding, and stormed out the front door. Somewhere, Mrs. Black began screeching again.

Sirius pushed open some dusty curtains and opened the window behind where they had hung. He stuck his head outside and took a great breath of fresh air.

___"Tomorrow night the Order will come here, just like they do every other week or so. What is it like, out there where they live? Now the Ministry's distracted, Dumbledore might just let me go!"_

**Author's Note:** Bah, what do you expect of me?

If this chapter isn't popular, then I'm just going to feel that it confirms my theory that people on this website only like things that have to do with romance.


	14. I'll make a man out of you

**Author's Note:** This song has been stuck in my head on and off for weeks.

**Song:** _Mulan - _"I'll Make a Man out of You"

* * *

"No, no, that's not the right movement for your wand."

"What? But I'm doing just what he did!"

"You're doing _close_ to what he did. You're waving it like a windmill."

"A what?"

"Just do it like this."

"Like this?"

"Yeah that's better. Now let me see you try."

"Er, okay. _Expelliarmus!"_

Hannah Abbott's wand did not successfully fly from her hand when Ernie did the spell this time but Harry did get him to stop swirling his wand with too much gusto.

With his newly attained whistle in hand, Harry walked towards a space void of any students in the Room of Requirement by the Foe Glass and blew the whistle hard.

"That wasn't bad," he said, "But there is definite room for improvement." He looked around to see Zacharias Smith glaring at him. "It's like...some of you have got the movement of the wand but not the concentration, and some of you just don't have it at all. I'm trying to think of a way to show you all how to do it right..."

He paced around a little and twenty-seven pairs of eyes followed his movements exactly, some with full attentiveness and others with a lazy sort of nonchalance. Finally, Harry turned back to them and clapped his hands together.

"All right," he said, grinning. "I know exactly what to do."

He looked at Ron, standing next to Hermione and Neville, and they exchanged a knowing nod. He waited as Ron grabbed Hermione's wand moved over to a cabinet under a crowded book shelf and pulled out a drum, which he placed on a conveniently placed table and began to drum with the tips of both his and Hermione's wand as drumsticks.

_"Let's get down to business!"_ Harry sang, _"To defeat Voldemort – did they send me first years when I asked for more?"_ he added in response to the collective shudder in the room as he said Voldemort's name.

_"You're the saddest bunch I've ever met, but you can bet before we're through, classmates I'll make a man out of you!"_

It appeared that everyone began to understand because they all got back with their partner and started launching red jets of light at each other. They were still mediocre, but there was some sort of improvement.

_"Tranquil as a forest, but a fire within,"_ he sang, walking in between them and correcting their wrist positions, _"Once you find your center, you are sure to win!_

_"You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot," _he told them,_ "And you haven't got a clue, somehow I'll make a man out of you!"_

_"I'm never gonna catch my breath,"_ muttered Zacharias Smith in the corner.

_"Say good-bye to those who knew me," _Justin Finch-Fletchley agreed.

_"Boy was I a fool, should've joined Quidditch!"_ Lee Jordan complained.

_"This guy's got 'em scared to death!" _Ron told Hermione gleefully.

_"Hope he doesn't see right through me!"_ Cho told Marietta, who rolled her eyes.

_"Now I really wish I was at the Quidditch Pitch!"_ Angelina rang.

_"Be a man!"_ The entire group sang, and Harry added, _"We must be swift as the coursing river!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the force of a great typhoon!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"_

Over the weeks, they began to move into more difficult, important spells: Impediment Jinxes, Stunners, and Reductor curses and it wasn't until weeks and weeks of training that they finally reached what a lot of them seemed to think was an ultimate reward: the Patronus Charm. But Harry was a little unsure: if it took some of them so long to learn even a Shield Charm, how could they home for a Patronus?

_"Time is racing toward us, 'til Death Eaters arrive!"_ Harry shouted over the shouts of _Expecto Patronum!_ as he squeezed through feeble, flickering silver lights. _"Heed my every order, and you might survive!"_

"Harry, that's a little harsh –" Seamus Finnigan reasoned, but Harry cut over him.

_"You're unsuited for the rage of war, so pack up, go home, you're through! How could I make a man out of you?"_

_"Be a man!"_ they all shouted, and shot silver smoke-like wisps from their wands.

_"We must be swift as the coursing river!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the force of a great typhoon!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"_

_"Be a man!"_ A slick silver otter slid from the tip of Hermione's shaking wand, and she grinned nervously.

_"We must be swift as a coursing river!"_

_"Be a man!"_ A terrier almost seemed to run out of Ron's wand and he looked like he would nearly collapse with effort. It met Harry's gaze with a silent bark.

_"With all the force of a great typhoon!"_

_"Be a man!"_ A silver hare bounced out of Luna's wand and hopped between people's feet.

_"With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the mooooon!" _Harry threw his wand in front of him, yelled, _"Expecto patronum!"_ and the beautiful silver stag cantered around the room and bowed it's antlers before it vanished with the rest of the perfectly conjured Patronuses.

* * *

Two years later, Neville vanished once more through the tunnel to the Hog's Head Inn and a few tired members of Dumbledore's Army sank to the floor in exhaustion. They had been hiding in here for days in rebellion to the Carrows' reign on the school, but they would never be able to act like this...

A few seventh years were practicing Disarming Charms on each other, half for practice and half out of boredom, but after a few minutes they all looked up excitedly as they heard more than one voice coming from the tunnel Neville had disappeared into about twenty minutes ago. Could it be?

It was. Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed a gleeful looking Neville through the hole and into the room where they were swarmed by excited old classmates, and in a little while when they were all to gather in the Great Hall after Snape had fled, they began to sing like it was fifth year again.

_"Be a man!"_ they shouted, and Harry grinned as he answered, _"We must be swift as a coursing river!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the force of a great typhoon!"_

_"Be a man!"_

_"With all the strength of a raging fire!"_

And everyone screamed in unison, _"Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"_

* * *

**Author's Note:** You get a reprise thrown in there, too! Aren't you happy?


	15. I've got a dream!

**Author's Note:** Requested by The Queen of Valencia Torgue. Your reviews make me happier than you could even imagine! And BookWorm77071 I promise that Heigh Ho is coming soon ;)

I. LOVE. THIS. SONG. I'm not kidding. Tangled is the best movie _ever._

**Song:** _Tangled_ "I've Got a Dream"

"And then I killed him, right there!"

"That's awesome."

"Was he crying?"

"Yeah, begging and crying for me to save his family, but I just – pew pew!" The hooded Death Eater mimed with his finger shooting a spell at nothing in particular, and his companions all laughed.

"What do you think, Snape? Bet you couldn't have done the same!"

Severus Snape, who was sitting in the corner reading a book on some Dark magic technique, sighed. "Children," he said, not taking his eyes off the passage he was reading.

"Oh yeah?" the hooded Death Eater spat, "Well what do you want to talk about, then?"

"I don't know, but it's always the same, isn't it?" Snape slammed the book shut and bore his black eyes into the Death Eater's. This Death Eater flipped his hood down to reveal Yaxley's blunt features. Snape said mockingly, "I killed this Muggle-born the other day, oh, you should have been there, oh it was great, oh I destroyed a building and caused a lot of destruction and the Dark Lord gave me the greatest honor and –"

"Fine, Snape," said Macnair bitterly. "Tell us about your life as one of Dumbledore's fake lap dogs."

"No, thank you," Snape drawled, turning back to his book in silence.

They all sat there for a moment and eventually of all people Bellatrix was the one to speak up. "Have you guys...ever...had a dream?"

They all stared at her, almost afraid to say something wrong in fear that the cackling woman would explode in anger, but she appeared to sincerely want an answer.

Greyback was the first one to reply.

_"I...had a dream...once..."_ he sighed.

"Hey, you!" Yaxley snarled to a Muggle servant they had taken for entertainment, who was holding a large accordion. "Play!" The Muggle shivered and obliged him, cowering behind the great instrument.

_"I'm malicious, mean, and scary," _Greyback commented, _"My sneer could curdle dairy – and violence-wise my hands are not the cleanest!" _he grinned his sharp yellowish teeth cruelly. _"But despite my evil flaws, and my temper and my claws –"_

The Death Eaters waited with bated breath for him to continue.

_"I've always yearned to be a concert pianist!"_

Nott, standing off to the side, quickly preformed a _Lumos!_ and and Greyback appeared to have a spotlight shining on him.

_"Can't you see me on the stage preforming Mozart?"_ Greyback sang excitedly, _"Tickling the ivories till they gleamed! Yep, I'd rather be called deadly for my killer showtune medley!"_ Malfoy Manor didn't appear to have a piano so he mimed the action. _"Thank you! Yes, way down deep inside, I've got a dream!"_

_"He's got a dream! He's got a dream!"_ the rest of the men and women in the room besides Snape and Yaxley sang, bouncing up and down.

_"See, I ain't as cruel and vicious as I seem!" _Greyback sang in a great baritone._ "Though I do like biting screamers you can count me with the dreamers – like everybody else, I've got a dream!"_

_"La la la la la la la la la la la la laaaaa!" _the Death Eaters chorused, and suddenly Snape could no longer hold his tongue.

_"I've got greasy hair and bruises – and something here that oozes! And let's not even mention my complexion!"_

Some of Voldemort's servants murmured in agreement.

_"But despite all I oppose and my black eyes and my nose – I really want to make a love connection!"_

Strangely, none of the Death Eaters were flattered by this, but participated in song anyway.

_"Can't you see me with my special little lady, rowing in a rowboat down a stream! Though I'm one disgusting blighter, I'm a lover – not a fighter. Yes way down deep inside I've got a dream!_

_"I've got a dream!"_

_"He's got a dream!"_

_"I've got a dream!"_

_"He's got a dream!"_

_"And I know one day romance will reign supreme! Though my hair leaves people screaming, there's a child inside me dreaming, like everybody else, I've got a dream!"_

All the Death Eaters in the room stood up joyfully.

_"Nott would like to quit and be a herbologist!"_

Nott jumped up from his spot in the corner where he had water sprinkling lightly from the tip of his wand onto a cactus.

_"Travers does interior design."_

Travers was shaking his hips as he straightened up some couch cushions his friends had just pushed askew.

_"Crabbe is into mime-"_

_"Pettigrew's cupcakes are sublime!"_

Peter Pettigrew was in the middle of offering Snape one of his delicious pumpkin-flavored cupcakes with banana frosting as Crabbe stood behind him, apparently trapped in some sort of invisible sphere.

_"Malfoy knits!"_

Lucius Malfoy's tired figure jumped as he hastily stuffed his knitting patterns into his robes.

_"Macnair sews!"_

He made his robes himself, you know.

_"Rowle does little puppet shows!"_

Greyback sang, _"And Dolohov collects ceramic unicorns..."_

They had always wondered why Dolohov wore frilly pink shirts with magical creatures emblazoned on them under his black robes.

"What about you?" one of them asked Yaxley, who was sitting idly and watching them with a plain expression.

"I'm sorry, me?" he said, caught off guard.

"What's your dream?"

"Oh, no, no, no, sorry boys. I don't sing."

Every single man and woman in the room pointed their wand tips at Yaxley's face in unison. He looked up at their gaunt, angry faces and let out a small, "Eep!"

_"I've got dreams like you – no, really!"_ he sang hastily, _"Just much less...touchy-feely. They mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny!"_

He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes. _"On an island that I own, tanned and rested and alone –" _

He paused, and looked around, before he threw his arms in the air wildly and shouted, _"Surrounded by enormous piles of money!"_

_"I've got a dream!"_ Bellatrix screamed, jumping on a table and leaping around, _"I've got a dream! I just want to make our precious Dark Lord gleam! And with every passing hour, I'm so glad I'm his top follower! Like all you lovely folks, I've got a dream!"_

_"She's got a dream!"_

_"He's got a dream!"_

_"They've got a dream!"_

_"We've got a dream!"_

_"So our differences ain't really that extreme! We're one big team!"_

_"Call us brutal!"_

_"Sick!"_

_"Sadistic!"_

_"Or grotesquely optimistic,"_ Snape drawled once more.

_"'Cause way down deep inside we've got a dream!"_

_"I've got a dream!"_ Nott chorused.

_"I've got a dream!" _Snape cried.

_"I've got a dream!" _Macnair sang.

_"I've got a dream!" _Crabbe guffawed.

_"I've got a dream!" _Dolohov chortled.

_"I've got a dream!" _Travers screeched.

_"I've got a dreaam!"_ Bellatrix cackled insanely.

_"Yes way down deep inside, I've got a dreaaaaaaaaam!" _All the singing men and women threw their hands up into the air in a great big _"YEAH!"_ before they all fell down to the floor in unison to laugh and cry and pant and regain their lost energy for when the Dark Lord entered their presence once more – which didn't take too long.

"Were you all talking about your dreams?" Voldemort's cold voice said as he strode into the room with Nagini on his shoulders.

"Uh – uh –"

"Er –"

"My Lord let us explain –"

"Please, my Lord!"

Voldemort held up one long white finger before continuing, "Well, then, let's continue!"

"M-my Lord, with all due respect, we just finished singing –"

"From the top!" Voldemort cried. _"I'm malicious, mean, and scary..."_

**Author's Note:** I think we can all agree that this should have happened in DH part 2. Too late now, I guess.

Guys, your reviews make every day like Christmas for me :) I'm going through and making note of any requests I might have missed, so keep an eye out!


	16. I Won't Say I'm in Love

**Author's Note:** Well, you should have been expecting this one.

**Song:** _Hercules – _"I Won't Say I'm In Love"

"And it's Beckett of Ravenclaw with the Quaffle, speeding down on his rickety old Cleansweep towards the Gryffindor goal posts – Taylor of Gryffindor smashes a Bludger in his direction and...it hits! Head on collision, Beckett's head and a Bludger hit good old Gryffindor style, Beckett drops the Quaffle and it's caught by...Williams! Karen Williams turns sharply and heads towards the goal posts, Johnson next to her waiting for a pass, but there's no need, the Ravenclaws are all on the other side of the field – Williams goes to shoot – and – SHE SCORES! GOAL TO GRYFFINDOR, making the score thirty-twenty to Gryffindor..."

Gryffindors screaming their excitement jumped and whooped as Karen Williams, a girl in the year below Lily, threw the Quaffle with such masterful precision that not even the Ravenclaw Keeper, Nathan Roberts, could block it, although he only missed it by about a foot.

Lily's friends, who had all but dragged her along despite the mountain of homework they had to complete by Tuesday, had chosen seats in the middle of every single cheering Gryffindor. She liked Quidditch just as much as the next person, but truly the only thing she wasn't crazy about was the almost unbearable volume of noise that these students were capable of emitting.

The Head Girl part of her wanted to snap and tell those around her to quiet down...but the rest of her was cheering along with them when her Housemates scored.

"Ravenclaw Keeper Roberts throws the Quaffle to Patterson, who streaks down the pitch like a lightning bolt with Parker right behind her – she passes to Parker, Parker to Beckett and – ouch, that has _got_ to hurt, two Bludgers straight to Beckett's head in one day, Beckett drops the Quaffle again and this time it's caught by...Potter!"

Lily's insides squirmed as she cheered James on with the rest of the Gryffindors as he flew off towards the Ravenclaw end to score another goal.

"Potter to Williams, Williams to Johnson, back to Williams, back to Potter – Potter avoids a Bludger narrowly, nice one, and – Potter scores! Gryffindor now leads forty to twenty!"

And nestled in the Gryffindor end of the Quidditch pitch, Lily cheered louder than she probably ever had, not knowing if her cheeks were red from the heat or from a blush. Her friends, however, took the liberty of assuming it was a blush.

"Lily!" Alice yelled, "You're blushing!"

The redhead looked at her, faking a bewildered expression. "No, no," she lied hastily, "It's just the excitement!"

"You like Potter! I knew it all along!"

"No!" At this, naturally, Lily's whole face went red and she turned away quickly, pretending to watch the game. From somewhere above her, she heard the commentator, Jack Andrews, repeating every move that any player made. "I'm just happy he scored a goal!"

It was like this all the time. In class, in the corridor, even after brushing her teeth.

Er, well, maybe that was an exaggeration, but whenever James Potter was in the room, Lily's friends teased her on, and on, and on, and...

"Marlene!" Alice shouted, "Look at Lily's face!"

"Lily, you're as red as a tomato!"

"Guys," Mary Macdonald shouted, "Come on, leave her alone and go back to the game."

"Thank you, Mary," Lily said."

"Oh, but, you know, you do look like a tomato."

Lily sighed and turned back to the match herself.

"Douglas of Ravenclaw hits a nasty Bludger towards Taylor, who is forced to avoid it narrowly and the Bludger turns and heads towards Patterson, who is possessing the Quaffle. Patterson darts away from it and Adams of Gryffindor swoops in to smash it back towards Patterson, Patterson drops the Quaffle and Williams catches it, passes to Potter, Potter to Johnson and back to Williams, Williams heads towards the Ravenclaw end. Meanwhile Ryans and Stone are on each other's tails, trying to block the other's way and still look for the Snitch..."

Ravenclaw exploded in excitement as Patterson stole the Quaffle back and rushed in and threw it past the Gryffindor Keeper, Connelly. Immediately, Williams grabbed the falling Quaffle and darted off while the Ravenclaws were still enjoying their victory. Lily couldn't help but smile to herself as she watched James receive the pass from Williams and score another point for Gryffindor.

This time, however, she wouldn't let her excitement get the better of her. As the other members of her house yelled and screamed themselves hoarse, she sat down on the stands and sighed.

_"If there's a prize for rotten judgment,"_ she said to herself, _"I guess I've already won that."_

Alice, Marlene, and Mary looked pointedly at her, confused for a moment – and then they all grinned at each other. Lily hardly noticed.

_"No man is worth the aggravation – that's ancient history, been there, done that!"_

_"Who'd'ya think you're kidding, he's the earth and heaven to ya!"_

Lily shook her head violently.

_"Try to keep it hidden, honey we can see right through ya!"_

_"Oh, nooooooooo!"_

_"Girl you can't conceal it, we know how ya feel and who you're thinking of!"_

_"Ooohh!"_ Lily shouted, and she stood up and pelted away from her friends, pushing violently through the red- and gold-clad Gryffindors, anything to get away from her feelings.

As she swept past a group of first years squealing like they had never seen a broom before (maybe they hadn't) she sang, _"No chance! No way! I won't say it, no, no!"_

Her friends were right on her tail.

_"You swoon, you sigh, why deny it? Oh, oh!"_

_"It's too cliche, I won't say I'm in love!"_ Lily made her way into the Hufflepuff section – but unfortunately for her, her red hair made her stick out like a sore thumb amongst the yellow and black, and her friends were watching her every move and listening for her ever word. Lily sent them a death glare and attempted to hide behind a pack of cheering Hufflepuff girls.

Somewhere hundreds of feet above her, the match was still going on and the Hufflepuffs were cheering for either participating House.

"Adams's Bludger hits Beckett _again_, straight on in his forehead, that boy must have a head made of steel. I always thought his skull seemed a little too thick to be allowed, I'll have to admit, and once I saw someone bump into him and they had a horrible headache afterwards, I can't imagine that this would be a coincidence –"

"Andrews, we are paying you well for this, so if you cannot commentate the game properly I shall find someone –" Professor McGonagall's sharp voice said, and laughter rumbled from everywhere but most of the the Slytherin and Ravenclaw sections.

"Right, sorry, Professor. Now that's Williams again with the Quaffle, to Potter, to Johnson, back to Potter, who ducks a Bludger and - YES, HE SCORES! POTTER SCORES AGAIN, the game is now ninety-forty to Gryffindor!

Lily's giggles towards the the clearly biased Gryffindor tradition of commentators stopped immediately she saw James throwing his fist in the air proudly after he scored before throwing his complete and utter concentration back at the match. She smiled slightly, before her eyes widened and she realized what she was doing.

_"I thought my heart had learned its lesson!"_ Lily wailed to a small-looking Hufflepuff girl who was holding a boy's hand and glancing at Lily nervously. Lily in turn just glanced at their holding hands and turned away in disgust. _"It feels so good when you start out. My head is screaming, 'Get a grip, girl – unless you're dying to cry your heart out' – WOOOOAAAHHHH!"_

And Lily ran at full speed through the Hufflepuffs and eventually collided with a particularly mean-looking Ravenclaw. Their eyes all seemed to light up with an angry kind of fire when they saw her wearing Gryffindor colors.

_"You keep on denying whooo you are and how you're feeling,"_ Alice, Mary, and Marlene said from behind her, and she jumped violently and sped away from the scary-looking Ravenclaw boy. _"Baby we're not buying – hun, we saw ya hit the ceiling!"_

Lily shook her head and pushed a blonde Ravenclaw out of her way.

_"Face it like a grown up! When ya gonna own up that ya got, got, got it bad?"_

_"Oooohhh! No chance, no way, I won't say it, no, no!"_

_"Give up, give in, check the grin, you're in love!"_

James had just scored again, and Lily was blushing violently – but despite any objections her conscious told her, she plowed along through the Ravenclaws into the Slytherin section.

_"This scene won't play, I won't say I'm in looove!"_

_"You're doing flips, read our lips, you're in love!"_

_"You're way off base, I won't say it!"_

_"She won't say it, no!"_

_"Get off my case, I won't say it!"_

Going into the Slytherin section _had_ been a bad idea – she was getting more dirty looks in here than amongst the Ravenclaws. She continued to dart in between them as they watched Beckett collide with yet another Bludger.

She didn't stop until she had arrived back with the Gryffindors, but somehow her friends had headed her off and gotten there before her. They confronted her head on and sang, _"Girl don't be proud, it's okay, you're in love."_

"Right after Potter scores yet another goal for Gryffindor, the score is – oh nevermind it, Ryans has spotted the Snitch, Stone is behind him – Cassidy of Ravenclaw chucks a Bludger to Ryans and Taylor comes in to block it – Ryans's broom is faster than Stone's and – YES! I DON'T BELIEVE IT! GRYFFINDOR VICTORY! RYANS HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IN GRYFFINDOR, WE ARE GOING TO THE FINALS!"

Lily watched as all the Gryffindor players flew towards Ryans and her heart squirmed more than she'd like at the sight of James's even messier hair and as they all flew back down to the ground, she sighed almost..._dreamily._

_"Aaaahh..."_

Oh, bollocks. It was true, wasn't it.

_"At least out loud,"_ Lily sang, and under the screams of the Quidditch fans every which way, _"I won't say I'm in love."_

_"Shalalalalalalaaaaa!"_

**Author's Note:** Poor Ravenclaw Chaser Beckett needs some ice for his Bludger wounds. Send him some with your review, won't you?


	17. Heigh hoooo!

**Author's Note:** Bookworm77071. I have finally found some form of concentration.

School is closed because of Hurricane Irene's damage...although my neighborhood hardly got a scratch. Oh my glob, what the stuff?

**Song:** _Snow White_ – "Heigh Ho"

"Put that away," snapped Professor McGonagall, looking up from the paper she was grading as students worked on scribbling down whatever assignment they had been given. "And Stebbins, _surely_ your copy of _Witch_ _Weekly_ can wait until your break period. No, I don't care who has won the Most Charming Smile award! I doubt you have finished all nineteen questions and if I see a flash of pink one more time you are going straight to a detention."

Stebbins groaned and stuffed the copy of _Witch Weekly_ into his bag, which he kicked under his desk so he wouldn't be tempted.

Remus glanced stealthily at the clock as McGonagall looked back down at her desk. 10:38.

He didn't blame Stebbins for being bored (although not even Sirius or James would have used _Witch Weekly_ as a source of escape. Well, on second thought...). The day was dragging on and it was hardly even the ending of the second class. He glanced back down at question fourteen: Describe in detail a situation in which one might want to use human transfiguration around the house.

Okay, it's not as though Remus had anything against Transfiguration. It was definitely handy and certainly much more so than Divination (their previous class of the day, huff) could ever be, but he just wasn't cut out for it.

He heard a snort next to him – he expected that either James or Sirius had just read the question about Animagi.

As he glanced at the clock again (10:42...) he indeed heard Sirius mutter with his voice dripping in amusement, "Oh, unregistered Animagi are illegal, are they? _Whoops."_

Remus smiled, but still elbowed Sirius in the side. One of these days, someone else would hear a comment like that and...

He didn't want to think about it.

_"Ouch!"_

"Boys!" McGonagall looked up sharply. "I think you can last fifteen more minutes in silence!"

He could practically feel Sirius's smirk.

One more glance at the clock...

10:44.

Daaaaamn.

"Moony, answer my questions for me," Sirius breathed, pushing his questions to the side and leaning back in his chair. Remus glanced down at his paper.

"You've got one more!" he whispered, and pushed it back in front of his illegal Animagus friend. "I've got five!"

Sirius responded by pushing his paper over to James.

"Bad dog," Remus heard, and glanced over to see James once again pushing the paper back at Sirius.

"Hey, guys," Peter murmured, turning around as McGonagall looked back at her desk, "Did you get sixteen?"

Great, even Peter was ahead of him. Remus put his quill down in defeat.

"Wormy, come on. You know the answer to that one. We figured it out in fourth year for Merlin's sake," James whispered, still writing.

"Moony, Prongs has gotten boring," Sirius whispered. "Entertain me."

"The bell is going to ring in ten –" Remus glanced at the clock again "-nine minutes. Entertain yourself."

"But you've put your quill down in defeat. You always do that. You really hate the number fourteen, don't you?"

"Why would I hate – ah, shut up!"

_"Boys!"_

"Quit your stupid whining, dog boy," James muttered, finishing his last sentence and pushing it over to Sirius so he would copy and shut up.

"Copy it down for me."

"I'm taking it away in three...two..."

"Fine, fine! But all we ever do is work!"

"Well," Remus said sarcastically, his eyes closed. "We're in school. Unless you want to go back home to London."

"Make that suggestion again and you'll be tied to your bed in the morning and no one will hear your cries for help."

"Don't threaten me, I'm a prefect."

"And I'm a bloody Animagus."

"Shut up!"

"Ouch!" James must have elbowed him this way. How responsible he has become –

"Lily's looking over here! Set a good example or you'll be the one tied to your bed!"

Scratch that.

"Fine! Work, work, work. I hate work."

"Did you guys get question seventeen –"

"Just answer yes."

"But it's asking for an explanation -"

"You're probably going to fail anyway."

"I am not! I'm okay at Transfig!"

"You're okay at being annoying. No, you're actually rather good at it."

"Padfoot, we literally have six minutes left, will you _shut up and copy my damn paper?"_

"Lily's looking over here again."

"What?"

"If only she knew you had antlers. You'd be so much more manly."

"You think?"

"Why don't you glue some to your head?"

"I'd like to see _you_ try. They're heavier than they look."

"Bring it on."

"Sirius! Work!"

"Work. Psh. I hate that word."

Finally, however, they both shut up and Remus could go back to his bewilderment about question fourteen in peace.

A minute later, as usual, however, his peace was defeated and he could feel his headache coming on again.

Sirius was singing in a whisper, growing slightly louder with each word.

Well, that was certainly one way to pass the time.

_"We work work work work work work work work in our class the whole day through."_

With his head on his desk, James added, _"To work work work work work work work is what we hate to do."_

Did they practice this or something?

Remus jumped slightly when Peter said without turning around, _"It ain't no trick to write stuff down whether your quill is white or brown."_

_"In a class! In a class!"_ Stebbins rang.

_"In a class! In a class!"_ his voice echoed, bouncing off the walls.

_"We all really want to get out of this claaaaass!"_

McGonagall jumped violently, too visibly shocked at the singing students to reprimand anyone.

_"We work work work work work work work work from early morn til night!"_ Sirius and James sang.

Every single student in the classroom except Remus sang, _"We work work work work work work work work with everyone in sight!"_

_"Divination, Transfig, Astronomy!"_

_"And then we go to Herbology!"_

_"And then, then we have History!"_

_"We work work work a-work, work!"_

The bell rang at that moment, and everyone stuffed their papers into their bags, jumping up excitedly to get out of this stupid classroom. Remus got over his initial shock and put his work away, as well, figuring he'd finish it during break.

He was right behind Sirius on their way out the door to their break when Sirius stopped, seemed to draw a great breath, and call out to the other students:

_"HEIGH HO!"_

A few third year Ravenclaws near them blinked but seemed to immediately understand what was going on. They and the students around them called back, _"HEIGH HO!"_

_"Heigh ho!"_

_"Heigh ho!"_

_"Heigh hoooo!"_

Sirius and James flung their bags over their shoulders and walked, and every student from their class followed.

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's home from class we go!"_

And Peter began the crowd in a magnificently unison whistle. Remus wasn't entirely sure, but he thought the floor began to shake from the impact of what he gathered to be every student in the school whistling together.

_"Heigh ho! Heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho, it's home from class we go!"_

More whistling.

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho."_

Sirius turned around, walking expertly backwards up the moving stairs, and seemed to start some conducting motion with his wand and led all the students in a marvelous chorus.

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho!"_

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho, heigh ho, hum!"_

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's home from work we go!"_

Peter whistled along with everyone else.

And with too much confusion than should be allowed on a Wednesday morning, Remus followed along the trail of Gryffindors headed back to the common room, hoping silently that this would not become a daily routine.

_"Heigh ho, heigh ho heigh ho heigh ho, heigh ho, it's home from work we go..."_

**Author's Note:** Sometimes I get a little carried away with my Marauder banter, but it's just so fun.

Anyrequests?


	18. Cinderella

**Author's Note:** THIS IS KIND OF A JOKE, okay? Someone requested Cinderella and here's what you get. :D

Hopefully this will be so bad to you that it's funny. That's sort of my intention.

**Song:** _Cinderella_ – "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", "Oh, Sing Sweet Nightingale", "The Work Song (Cinderelly Cinderelly)", "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo"

Lily Evans was a beautiful girl, everybody knew that. Common knowledge. Old news. What_ever_. Her red hair flowed down her back, her eyes gleamed with their emerald shine in the sunlight, and anyone around her couldn't help but absolutely adore her. She was funny, sweet, helpful, and intellectual. She liked to read and she could sing well, she made friends easily and she even had a boy chasing after her. She was a heartache. Boys swooned after her as she walked down the corridor; girls envied her pretty face and thin frame; everyone in the school new Lily Evans's name, and not just because she was Head Girl. The teachers adored her – Slughorn – and thought she was hilarious and spunky – _Slughorn – _and if one looked at her by simply ignoring all the possible flaws that didn't show, they could argue that she was absolutely perfect.

Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. But on this particular morning, it didn't quite matter to her. Ever the morning person, she leaped right out of bed and hopped merrily over to the window, opened the clasp at the bottom, and pushed the window frames apart to breathe in beautiful Scotland morning air.

As her dormmates slept soundly, she cupped her hand around her mouth and sang, _"Aaaaah!"__*****_

Right on queue, flocks of wild animals came flying toward her, and she had to step back so the owls and doves and pigeons and one odd swan came to sit around her bed and looked at her. She drifted back over to them and sat down. Holding out her arm so that an owl could perch itself on her pale skin despite the fact that owls have terribly sharp talons and would rip open any Muggle's skin, she stroked its feathers gently.

The animals expected her to start singing again, so she obliged them.

_"A dream is a wish your heart makes,"_ she sang, _"When you're fast asleep. In dreams you lose your heartaches - whatever you wish for you keep."_

The owl almost looked as though it was smiling. It ruffled it's feathers warmly and flew back over to its owl friends.

_"Have faith in your dreams and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you _wish_ will come true."_

Lily smiled to herself and fell back on her bed, almost giddy as she remembered the dream she had had last night. It had been a beautiful dream-night with lots of twirly dancing with an unknown male who didn't really have any defined features. Just some sort of...almost...Prince Charming that she had subconsciously been trying to perfect for years, same as any other girl. But it was silly, a silly dream she wouldn't risk telling anyone. Not even these animals.

Like, take that rat over there, that she assumed came when she did a beautiful melodious call. For all she knew, that rat could be an Animagus in disguise.

...

Hah, no. No, that was definitely absurd. There weren't any student Animagi in this school. Impossible.

Therefore, she didn't worry herself as the rat scurried away and she just went back to the daydreaming, humming the tune that she just sang to herself...

Meanwhile, the rat scurried quickly down the girls' staircase, into a broom cupboard, until pop! It turned back into Peter Pettigrew, who scampered up the boys' staircase and almost exploded with excitement.

Before he could tell his friends, who had sent his rat form to Lily's dormitory to spy, what he learned, he heard a rather horrid voice coming from the shared bathroom.

_"Oh, sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet nightingale, hiiiiiiiigh above me!"_

Peter looked around to see Sirius and James cringing.

"One of these days, we're going to have to tell Remus that we can hear him singing in the shower, Sirius said, and James nodded seriously.

They turned their attention to Peter.

"What did you find out?" James said urgently.

"Well," Peter began, "Lily can -"

_"Sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet nightingale, hiiiiigh."_

Sirius clapped his hand to his forehead.

"Oh for goodness sake, MOONY WE CAN HEAR YOU!"

The singing stopped abruptly.

"Yes, Peter?"

"Lily had a dream last night. She sang about it."

"...And?"

"Um...she said that a dream is a wish your heart makes when it's fast asleep – and er..."

"Yes?"

"I can't remember the rest of the words."

"...So then, what as the dream about?"

"I, er..."

Sirius and James looked at each other and sighed.

"You took whatever you could get and left. Great, Peter."

"Sorry."

"_Sing sweet nightingale, sing sweet –_ Oh, ahem, hey, guys. Not at breakfast yet?"

"Oh, Moony."

With that, the four rowdy boys trekked down seven floors to the Great Hall. There was an unusual amount of people singing today.

In the Great Hall, the entire school congregated to eat but what they found was something abnormal: Professor Dumbledore was standing up tall, and everyone silently filed into spots on their four respective House tables. The drapes were black – what had happened last night?

"Students, and teachers," Professor Dumbledore said, apparently solemnly, "I have some news and I'm not quite sure how you will all receive it. Tonight something is going to happen to this school that has not happened since its inception. I don't...quite know how to say it..."

The entirety of the school waited with baited breath. The tension was almost tangible.

Finally, Dumbledore opened his mouth again to speak.

"Hogwarts is going to be hosting the first annual Hogwarts Ball tonight!" He clapped his hands and the black leaked out of the banners to be replaced with a sparkling light blue color.

Every single person in the entire Great Hall jumped out of their seats and began to cheer so loudly that the castle seemed to shake.

"After lunch here today," Dumbledore said raising a hand to stop the sound immediately, "I request that everyone clears out so preparations can be made and the dance room set up. Have fun preparing for this dance that was spontaneously thrown on you!"

Everyone merrily started to eat their breakfast chatting excitedly about the dance. A lot of students were climbing over the tables trying to get to someone they want to ask to the dance.

"I wonder what the theme will be!"

"What are you going to wear?"

"I forgot my dress robes at home!"

"But I have seven essays to do tonight!"

_"Sing, sweet nightingale, sing, sweet nightingale, hiiiigh-"_

Lily sat in front of her plate contemplating life. What would she wear? Would anyone ask her? Potter hadn't asked her out for a while now, but she supposed she could just go with friends.

She glanced over at where the Marauders had their heads together, probably devilishly coming up with a prank to spring upon the students at the dance later. She sighed. Yeah, she could just go with her friends.

However, just as she was continuing to contemplate the intricacies of life and school dances, Professor McGonagall walked briskly up to her.

"Miss Evans, I'm afraid we need to request the help of the two Heads in supervising the set up of the dance all day. We teachers just found out about it this morning as well and er..._we need a little help,"_ she added in a whisper. Lily's friends, who had suddenly started listening, had disappointed looks on their faces but to tell you the truth, Lily was a little glad that she didn't have to think about how she would prepare herself all day and instead could just work on the dance and the decorations.

But wait, the two Heads, that means she had to work with Potter all day...

Great. Potter.

* * *

Shortly before the dance Lily's friends were all ready and steady to go, but Lily had still not returned.

_"Every time she'd find a minute, that's the time when they begin it,"_ Mary Macdonald said, clearly frustrated. _"Head Girl Lily, Head Girl Lily."_

_"It's always Lily,"_ Marlene McKinnon agreed irritably. They all mutually agreed that Lily deserved more of a break for all the hard work she did as Head Girl.

Mary took a deep breath, ready to vent.

_"It's always Lily, Head Girl Lily, night and day it's Head Girl Lily, help the first year, help the student, help the teacher, there's no stopping -"_

_"All the assistance and the leading, they always keep her hopping!"_

_"She goes around in circles til' she's very, very dizzy, still they holler -"_

_"Keep a-busy, Head Girl Lily!"_

"Well then," Alice said from in front of the mirror where she was perfecting her hair. "Then why don't we help her?"

"But how?"

"Well...she didn't know what she was going to wear earlier, right? I already checked her wardrobe and it's especially dress-empty, so how about...we make her one?"

Mary and Marlene exchanged unsure glances.

"But-"

"I don't really-"

Alice waved their comments away. _"We can do it we can do it, we can help our little Lily, we can make her dress so pretty - there's nothing to it really. We'll tie a sash around it, put a ribbon through it. When dancing at the ball she'll be more beautiful than all in the lovely dress we make for Head Girl Lily."_

The three girls go to work, pulling out fabric from boxes that mysteriously appeared and jumping around waving their wands to a headless mannequin where dress was coming together.

The three girls sang, _"Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, gotta help our silly Lily. Got no time to dilly-dally, we got to get a-goin'!"_

_"I'll cut it with these scissors!"_ Marlene exclaimed.

_"And I can do the sewing!"_ Mary cried.

_"Leave the sewing to the women,"_ Alice sang.

"But I am-"

_"You go get some trimmin' and we'll make a lovely dress for our dear Lily!"_

Right on queue, a very tired, rushed looking Lily burst in the dormitory as the girls chorused again, _"We'll make a lovely dress for silly Lily!"_

"What?"

Lily looked at the dress on the mannequin and blinked.

And the four girls started screaming.

A lot.

* * *

Meanwhile, an equally exhausted and somewhat rushed-looking James burst into the boys' dormitory in the same tower, but not to a sight of his friends jumping around and singing in ridiculously shrill voices. Instead, they were sitting in the middle of the room, wearing their dress robes but playing something that looked uncannily like Exploding Snap.

When James closed the door, his three friends looked up. They stared at each other strangely before-

"Prongs! You're back!" Peter exclaimed.

"Seems that way."

"Well, you can't go to the ball in that!" Sirius cried, jumping up.

"Uh..I wasn't going to?"

"Well what are we going to do with you, hrm...Your size, and the color of your eyes..."

"Er, Padfoot, what are you doing?"

"Be quiet. I'm contemplating."

"..."

"I've got it!"

"Got what?" Remus asked, amused, from his spot on the floor.

"Why, Moony, what do you think? We need some magic!"

"Er-"

Sirius pulled James away from the door and pulled out his wand.

_"Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!"_

"Wha-"

_"Put 'em together and what have you got? Bippity-boppity-boo!"_

"Sirius, I'm quite sure that isn't a real spell," Remus said flatly, but as the werewolf spoke sparks began emitting from the tip of Sirius's wand as he began to change James's robes into something more suitable for the dance.

"Padfoot, I have dress robes-"

_"Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! It'll do magic, believe it or not! Bippity-boppity-boo!"_

"I don't even-"

_"Salagadoola means mechika booleroo, but the thingmabob that does the job is bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!"_

James jumped as Remus and Peter stood up and began to sing along with Sirius as though hypnotized.

_"Salagadoola menchicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! Put 'em together and what have you got?"_

"..."

_"Bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!"_

"Are you done?"

"Yes, but look at your robes!"

"They look the same."

"..."

"..."

"From the chorus!"

* * *

It was finally time for the ball, and students were pouring in to admire the hastily added dance decorations and filing towards circular tables to ensure that they got one. And by some stroke of either luck or an unfortunate bit of fate, the Marauders found themselves seated at a table directly next to that of Lily and her friends.

But it didn't matter, not at first. They all got up to dance anyway. But problems started to arise when the first slow song of the evening began to play and of course, Lily and James "accidentally" looked at each other and found that they couldn't look away. They continued to stare at each other for a few songs, slowly edging toward one another, when suddenly they found them dancing with each other.

Lily looked up into his hazel eyes.

_"So this is love," _she murmured. _"Mmmm... So this is love..."_

They were looking straight into the other's eyes.

_"So this is what makes life divine...I'm all aglow, mmmm... And now I know..."_

_"And now I know..."_ he responded, and they said together, _"The key to heaven is mine."_

They twirled around the dance floor like no one else was there, like one being.

_"My heart has wings, mmmm, and I can fly..."_

_"I'll touch ev'ry star in the sky... So this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of..."_

_"Mmmm...Mmmm...So this is love..."_

The slow song ended right on queue and a faster one started up again, and Lily found she could only hold James's gaze for just a second longer before they both looked away and they flushed red. As they walked back to their tables, Lily said, "I didn't know you've seen Cinderella too."

"Cinderella?"

"..."

**Author's Note:** I've been trying to finish this for weeks.

Do you appreciate my stupid sense of humor?

If you do then REVIEW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW WRRROOARRRR

*****In _Enchanted_ Giselle sings to call the animals of New York City to help her clean and that's what I had in mind here.


	19. A Whole New World

**Author's Note:** Many reviews = I want to write more. School Fanfiction.

I love you lot an unhealthy amount. I am absolutely infatuated with every single one of you. I'll give all of you a smiley face but you have to finish this chapter to get it! Woah, plot twist. You didn't see that one coming did you.

**Song:** _Aladdin_ - "A Whole New World"

"Come on, it's this way."

"Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to walk down moving staircases blindfolded?"

"I do actually. Sirius had the house elves bake me a cake on my birthday in fourth year and led me down to the kitchens like this. Except he wasn't holding my hands so I had to follow the sound of his voice."

"Aw, that's sweet of him. The cake, I mean."

"Then he exploded it in my face and kept what didn't blow up for himself."

"You're not taking me to explode a cake in my face, are you?"

"No."

"Ice cream?"

"No, but that's a good idea, let's get some after."

"After _what?"_

"You'll see in a few minutes."

"Uuuugh."

James smiled and pulled Lily by the hand carefully down the corridors and staircases. It was quite late, and the only students who weren't in their common rooms or sitting dully in detention were shooting some strange looks their way. Not that Lily had any idea.

Glancing both ways, the duo jolted across the entrance hall where James pushed the great oak doors open just enough so the two of them could slip out.

"Wait – did we just – go outside? James, it's almost after hours!"

"True."

"Wait – Sirius didn't plan another song and dance number, did he?"

He chuckled. "No. Sirius has nothing to do with this, I swear."

She became quiet, shivering slightly against the chilly breeze of the April night. That one was her fault. He had told her she should wear a sweater, he just hadn't told her why.

"Okay, we're almost there. I promise."

"If this isn't a romantic moonlit lakeside dinner picnic, I'm not going to be happy."

"All right, we're here. You can take your blindfold off."

Lily struggled to pull the Gryffindor-red fabric from around her eyes and blinked in the light of the bright very nearly almost full moon. She looked around and saw nothing.

"James, I don't see anyth-"

"Look down." Before obliging him she glanced at his face to observe his gleeful expression. Somewhat tensely, she looked down at her feet and saw a shiny broomstick sitting in the grass.

Her heart skipped a beat just thinking about it.

"Oooh, no, no, no-"

"Come on, Lily, you wouldn't have me drag you all the way out here just to let you go back inside right away!"

"I don't care how good you are at Quidditch, you are not getting me to ride one of those."

"It's brand new! I got it last summer! It's a Silver Arrow!"

"Do not talk broom models to me, James Potter. I am not riding that."

"I'll hold you nice and tight I promise."

"_No._"

"There's a first year being tortured on the roof and this is the fastest way to get there."

"Will you and Sirius stop using that excuse? No! I'm going inside!"

"But Lily, don't you trust me?"

"What?"

She glanced at him hesitantly. She _could_ see from the look in his eyes how much this would mean to him... But...she had known since first year that being more than three feet off the ground was too much...

He held out his hand. "Do you trust me?"

Maybe...just this once.

Aw, fine. Damn all common sense.

Why did her boyfriend have to be so adorable when he acted like a ten-year-old boy at Christmas?

"All right," she said, nodding. "But just this once and then never, ever again."

His grin lit up his whole face, and she couldn't help but smile too. He picked up the broomstick and indicated for her to get on, which she did, trying to strain her memory to remember how they did it at the beginning of Quidditch matches. They always seemed to grip them in certain places – but he slid on right behind her and told her where to place her hands. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"Actually, it'll probably be ten times scarier if you have your eyes closed," he said. She could practically feel his smile. "You'll look up and be a hundred feet in the air and almost have a heart attack, I guarantee it."

"Uh, I think I'm going to have one anyway, thank you."

"Well, ready?"

"Just do it."

Her pale hands clenched the handle as she felt him kick off the ground like he always does when he wears his Quidditch robes.

Oh, God, oh, God, ohGodohGodohGod-

She opened her eyes and almost screamed. Her insides were clenching and relaxing with a bizarre mixture of thrill and terror as her eyes scanned the rolling hills of evergreens and trees that had not yet grown back their leaves after the cold winter. The glassy surface of the lake was disrupted by the Giant Squid raising one of it's slimy tentacles – it almost looked as if it was waving as the light of the moon glimmered on the water.

"See, Lily? It's not that bad," James's voice said behind her; call her a romantic, but just hearing his voice in her ear made this whole situation a little less terrifying.

Lily shook her head, fearing that any sound she made would cause her to vomit a rainbow.

"You okay?"

She nodded this time, just very slightly, and leaned back against his chest. He wrapped one arm around her, keeping the other hand firmly on the broom handle next to hers. She relaxed just a little.

"Keep...talking...please..." she squeaked. He chuckled before leaning in to speak in hear ear, just above a whisper. If he hadn't been so close, she probably wouldn't have heard him because of the whistling of the wind at this high altitude.

_"I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid, tell me Lily, now when did you last let your heart decide?"_

His hand appeared to twitch on the handle as though he wanted to wrap his other arm around her, but knew she wouldn't appreciate being the only one holding on for her life. Instead, his warm hand moved to cover hers, comforting her and calming more of her fears.

_"I can open your eyes,"_ he sang, _"Take you wonder by wonder - over, sideways, and under on this magic broomstick ride. A whole new world-" _He pulled them the broom upwards so they flew to an even greater height and began to fly over the school. She screamed, but just a little.

_"A new fantastic point of view, no one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming..."_

_"A whole new world,"_ she sang, turning bravely to face him with her hair blowing wildly behind her. _"A dazzling place I never knew, but when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear, that now I'm in a whole new world with you."_

_"Now I'm in a whole new world with you-"_

_"Unbelievable sights," _Lily sang, and he raised a hand to tuck some of her hair behind her ear before his thumb slid gently over her cheek. She grinned. _"Indescribable feelings. Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling, through an endless diamond sky - _aah!" she added as a scream when James grinned devilishly and flew them into a dive before pulling up at the last second. They were very nearly touching the surface of the lake water now.

She took in a deep breath of the smell of the lake and sang, completely thrilled and exhilarated, _"A whole new world!"_

_"Don't you dare close your eyes,"_ he said.

_"A hundred thousand things to see!"_

_"Hold your breath, it gets better."_

_"I'm like a shooting star, I've come so far - I can't go back to where I used to be!"_

_"A whole new world..."_

_"Every turn a surprise..."_

_"With new horizons to pursue-"_

_"Every moment red-letter!"_

_"I'll chase them anywhere,"_ they sang together, _"There's time to spare! Let me share this whole new world with you..."_

James wrapped both of his arms around Lily and pulled her into a strange kind of sideways hug hundreds of feet up in the air.

_"A whole new world,"_ he whispered.

_"A whole new world,"_ she repeated breathlessly.

_"That's where we'll be..."_

_"That's where we'll be..."_

_"A thrilling chase.."_

_"A wondrous place..."_

_"For you and me..." _they finished together, and Lily still felt sky-high as James landed them back beside the lake where they had started this endeavor.

After a moment of looking at each other in the silence, they each took a step and wrapped their arms tightly around one another, locked in a gigantic hug that made them both forget how frozen they had felt just a few moments ago.

"You know, Sirius has been working on charming this Muggle moterbike..."

"Absolutely never."

**Author's Note:** :D


	20. Under the Sea

**Author's Note:** I'll bet you didn't see this one coming, eh?

**Song:** _The Little Mermaid _- "Under the Sea"

~I don't own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it or the Walt Disney company or junk. D'aw.

* * *

Harry threw himself underwater and immediately all noise around him extinguished like it hadn't even been there in the first place. He looked around, and found that due to the effect of the gillyweed, his eyes didn't even sting. He tested out his newly acquired fins by jolting forward, feeling like some sort of weird humanfish. He could see no sign of any of the other champions.

It was strange. Yes, he was nervous, and yes, he had absolutely no idea where to go – but the wonderful freedom that he now felt through the ability to swim like this made much of his worry leak out of him and into the surrounding waters. He decided to pick the direction he was facing and go straight.

Okay, Ron was somewhere in this lake. If he had to hide his best friend, where would he put him?

Oh, who was he kidding. That was absolutely ridiculous.

He began to swim as fast as he could without overexerting himself, which was somewhat hard seeing as he could barely see ten feet in front of him. He was looking around for a sign of something – one of the Giant Squid's tentacles, an underwater monument, anything – there were mermaids in the lake, too, right? Hrm...

Just as he was about to get tangled up in a huge forest of seaweed, he felt something scratch the back of his leg, and tried to turn around but in a way that he wouldn't lose track of the direction he was heading in.

A grindylow was grabbing onto the back of his pant leg, a devilish sort of expression on it. Harry wracked his brain for everything that Lupin had taught him last year and he sent a spell at it before it released him and he darted away as fast as he could, free of the water demon.

And before too long, he heard the same sort of strange song that had come out of the egg when it was underwater, a flowing tune that seemed to be leading him in the right – or possibly even wrong – direction. Ignoring the idea that it could be intended as a distraction, he swam towards it.

He met with a series of long, waving pieces of seaweed that tickled his skin as he touched it, but not in an unpleasant way as it would have felt if he hadn't had the gillyweed. Only hesitating slightly, he brushed some of the pieces aside, and looked in the direction of where the music was coming from.

There were at least twenty mermaids and mermen floating around what Harry made out to be four people who were tied by one leg to a rock, and he almost started forward when he realized that one of these looked like Ron. There had to be some trick, didn't there? Maybe the merpeople would attack him with those dangerous and _very sharp_ spears they were holding, ehh...

He decided to survey the environment. Lots of fish were floating around, ignored by the merpeople whose silvery tails appeared to be waving slightly. But two of these merpeople in particular appeared to be having what looked like a vehement argument about something he couldn't hear. Just as one – apparently a girl – started to swim away, her argument partner followed her closer to where Harry was concealed, so he could hear their conversation.

"Ariel, listen to me! The human world, it's a mess. Life under this lake is better than anything they got up there!"

Harry saw the girl shake her head before the older one began to sing.

_"The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake! You dream about going up there – but that is a big mistake! Just look at the world around you, right here on the Black Lake's floor! Such __wonderful things surround you – what more is you lookin' for?"_

"But-"

_"Under the sea, under the sea!"_ the first one sang. _"Darling it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me! Up on the shore they work all day, out in the sun they slave away! While we devotin' full time to floatin' under the sea!"_

Harry felt movement beside him and jumped violently, swinging his head around and for the first time tearing his gaze from the singing underwater inhabitants. Cedric had swam up beside him with a large bubble around his head and made a sort of hello motion that Harry's dumbstruck brain could hardly contemplate.

Cedric seemed to mouth, "What's going on?"

Harry shook his head in bewilderment but pointed through the brush of seaweed concealing them. Cedric turned to watch, as well.

_"Down here all the fish is happy as off through the waves they roll, but fish on the land ain't happy, they sad 'cause they in their bowl!"_

Another merman swam up next to the singer. _"But fish in the bowl is lucky,"_ he reasoned, _"They in for a worser fate! One day when the boss get hungry, guess who's gon' be on the plate?"_

Harry admittedly got a little angry as he saw Cedric start to sort of dance along to the catchy tune. In fact, he almost thought he could hear Cedric's voice start to sing along from inside the bubble around his head.

_"Under the sea,"_ Cedric sang, nodding his head. _"Under the sea!"_

_"Nobody beat us, fry us and eat us in fricassee!"_

All of a sudden, Cedric pushed Harry out of the way and swam through the seaweed.

_"You what the land folks love to cook!"_ Cedric said, and the merfolk welcomed him merrily, indicating towards the four humans tied to the rock. Squinting, Harry thought he could make out Cho Chang.

_"Under the sea we off the hook!"_ the merman said, _"We got no troubles, life is the bubbles! Under the sea!"_

_"Under the sea!"_ the entire underwater colony seemed to chorus at once.

_"Under the sea!"_

_"Under the sea!"_

_"Since life is sweet here, we got the beat here, naturally!"_

_"Even the sturgeon an' the ray, they get the urge 'n' start to play! We got the spirit, you got to hear it, under the sea!"_

Harry felt another force swim past him as Cedric pulled Cho Chang up to the surface. He looked around and tried to scream at what appeared to be a shark before he realized the muscular build of its human body belonged to Viktor Krum.

Krum stopped without noticing Harry and too began to watch the musical display that now increased in a level of excitement.

All the underwater critters that lived in the lake seemed to appear out of nowhere as they participated in what the merman was trying to say.

_"The newt play the flute, the carp play the harp, the plaice play the bass, and they soundin' sharp. The bass play the brass, the chub play the tub – the fluke is the duke of soul!"_

_"Yeah!"_ Viktor Krum's very deep voice came out of the shark's mouth in this exclamation.

_"The ray he can play the lings on the strings, the trout rockin' out, the blackfish she sings-"_

The mermaid gave an exasperated sigh, though she too appeared to be liking the musical number.

_"The smelt and the sprat, they know where it's at - and oh that blowfish BLOW!"_

All the merpeople began to swim around the now two remaining people tied to the rock, Ron and what Harry assumed to be Fleur Delacour's sister.

Slowly, he began to push through the seaweed, mustering up all his Gryffindor courage to swim through the barrage of mermaids and their spears towards his best friend.

_"Under the sea!" _he ducked through two mermaids, _"Under the sea!"_ and swam up next to Ron, hastily looking for something to break the seaweed holding him with.

_"Where the sardine begin the beguine, it's music to me!"_

He picked up a rock and began to hack through the seaweed until Ron was free. However...

_"What do they got, a lot of sand? We got a hot crustacean band!"_

Fleur hadn't arrived to pick up her sister...

_"Each little clam here know how to jam here, under the sea!"_

But refusing to think about what might happen to this little girl if her sister didn't arrive, Harry moved toward her, too, keeping an eye on Ron in the process.

_"Each little slug here, cutting a rug here, under the sea!"_

A merman tried to stop him, but, tired of all this nonsense around him, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the water dweller before cutting the girl's seaweed, too. He grabbed each by an arm and began kicking toward the surface with all his might.

_"Each little snail here know how to wail here, that's why it's hotter under the water, ya we in luck here, down in the muck here, under the sea!"_

As he finally met with the surface and made sure that his two partners did too, he felt his gils start to vanish and heard the music stop immediately before he shook the hair out of his eyes and started to pull them each toward the shore where the entirety of the school stood, watching.

Next to him, Harry heard Ron start coughing and knew instantly that he was awake, too. Without looking at his best friend, Harry heard Ron's voice say, "I heard that the musical number would be the biggest distraction, how did you deal with that?"

* * *

It was two years later and he was with Dumbledore in a murky, dimly lit and very wet cave somewhere unknown. He was helping feed Dumbledore whole gobletfuls of a potion that could very well kill the old man and it didn't make Harry feel any better to know that unknown terrors might exist in the apparently black waters around the tiny rock he struggled to keep his footing against.

He brushed sweaty hair out of his eyes with his arm before dunking the goblet into the potion that Voldemort had surely laid out as a trap, silently cursing Voldemort for being too prepared against intruders and verbally reassuring Dumbledore that everything was going to be okay as long as Harry continued to do this thing against his will.

As he once again brought the goblet to his headmaster's mouth, he poured the liquid in before Dumbledore started choking, asking for water.

"Water...," Harry murmered, shifted the goblet to his left hand and holding his wand in his right. _"Aguamenti!"_ Nothing happened. _"Aguamenti!_ No - _dammit, _come on, _aguamenti! AGUAMENTI!"_

He clapped his hand to his forehead, straining his mind, and glanced down at his parched headmaster before an invisible Muggle lightbulb seemed to Ding! above his head and he jolted to the surface. He was probably going to regret this soon, but he shook his head violently and pushed his hand into the water, holding the goblet.

Success. The water no longer vanished from the goblet, and Harry started to pull himself back up the rock to where Dumbledore was doubled over before he stumbled and looked behind him only to see a raisin-y white hand holding onto his leg.

Thinking he was going to be sick he hastily shot a spell at it before continuing to push himself toward Dumbledore, but the Inferi had other plans. They began to emerge from the water right before his eyes and before he could fight back, they grabbed hold of him and began to carry him back to the water.

In his shock, Harry was hardly even fighting back. He was pulling his limbs with as much force as he could muster, but the zombies had incredible strength for creatures that have been dead for longer than he could probably imagine. He felt his already damp skin make contact with the icy temperature of the water, and he shivered and shut his eyes tightly, still clinging onto the goblet and his wand for the biggest support he could get.

All of a sudden, he was underwater, and something he could never expect, an unbelievable sound, made him open his stinging eyes with surprise.

He could only see a few feet in front of him, but what he did see almost made him release the objects he was holding.

There was an Inferi in the center of a circle of them who was _singing_.

_"Under the sea...under the sea!"_it yelled, and even underwater it's voice spread to all the listening ears, including Harry's own.

_"Darling it's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me! Up on the shore they work day, out in the sun they slave away, while we devotin' full time to floatin', under the sea!"_

Harry hardly even noticed that he was about to pass out from holding his breath too long as a great orange color erupted around him like a volcano and a strong, definitely alive hand grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the water. Coughing and spluttering and hardly being able to see through his drenched glasses, he saw a blurry form of Albus Dumbledore pulling him to shore, holding a great wall of fire steady that kept the Inferi at bay.

Dumbledore's voice was extremely faint when it spoke. "May I ask what it is you saw down there, Harry?"

Harry was dumbfounded. "I, uh...couldn't tell you if I knew."

* * *

**Author's Note:** The second part was pretty pointless, but you've already read it so I guess it's too late. HAHAHA.

That scene is so much more emotional now that we know that he was imagining Ariana's death. But now we can all think of it a little happier knowing that the Inferi were doing a spectacular rendition of Under the Sea that we just didn't get to see in the books because of copyright issues. I hope that makes its way onto Pottermore.

PLEASE REVIEW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BEG BEG BEG I NEED THEM TO LIVE THEY'RE LIKE MY VERSION OF REMUS'S CHOCOLATE-


	21. A Merry Marauder Christmas

**Author's Note: **The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. So SING ALONG :D

**I do not own rights to Harry Potter or any of these great Christmas songs. They all belong to their respective owners and singers and companies and all that merry stuff.  
**

**Songs:** _"It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas", "Jingle Bells", "Jingle Bell Rock", "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree", "Deck the Halls", "Frosty the Snowman", "Winter Wonderland", "Let it Snow", "Sleigh Ride", "Here Comes Santa Claus", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"_

"Sirius..."

"Mrph."

"Padfoot, wake up."

"I'mnoasleep..."

"Padfoot, come on, look outside?"

_"Mmmrph."_

"Padfoot, it's snowing!"

"WHAT? It's snowing!" Sirius raised his head and immediately regretted it. His head was spinning and nothing around him had a clear focus; the lights in this place was too bright. Wait, where was he again? Is this how James saw then he didn't have his glasses on?

"Mr. Black!"

Oh, right, Transfiguration.

"Sorry, professor..."

Sirius waited a moment to steady the dizziness in his head and then with a furtive glance at McGonagall, peered out the window.

Snow was indeed falling down in fluffy bunches. Some of it was landing on the windowsill so they could see how it was beginning to pile up. Outside Sirius could see the green trees covered with white and the mountains in the background completely obscured. Every time Professor McGonagall turned away from the class, heads turned to stare, mesmerized, at the weather before snapping back to her when she faced them again.

A few minutes later the bell rang but McGonagall held them back.

"Wait a moment!" Groans, groans everywhere. "I know how much all of you love the snow, and I know what a _joy_ the Christmas season is," she said, surveying them through her square-shaped spectacles. "However, that is not an excuse to slack off and neglect your studying. This is your N.E.W.T. year and you all better remember it. All right, dismissed."

The seventh years jumped out of their seats and bolted quickly for the door. Outside, they burst into excited chatter.

"It's snowing!"

"Gryffindor snowman contest!"

"I make the most boss snow angel you've ever seen."

"I think I'm skiving off Herbology tomorrow to go sledding."

"Oh, how I cannot wait for the holidays," Sirius sighed dreamily as they passed handrails covered in tinsel and couples kissing under mistletoe the second the plant is hung. They entered the crowd of students trying to push their way into the Great Hall and once they were in the doors they looked up and saw the ceiling mirroring the snow outside, falling juuust low enough before it vanished that they could almost touch it.

Also twinkling around the House tables were most of the twelve traditional Christmas trees; clearly Hagrid had not finished lugging them all in yet, but somehow the absence of a few still didn't take away from the magic of the holidays.

"Boys," Sirius said, heading for a vacant spot on the benches, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

"Huh?" Peter said, sitting across from him.

"I said..._It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go! Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again - with candy canes and silver lanes aglow!"_

_"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,"_ Remus sang. _"Toys in every store! But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be on your own front door!"_

_"A pair of hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots is the wish of Barney and Ben,"_ Sirius sang, pointing directly at a pair of twin Hufflepuffs.

_"Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk is the hope of Janice and Jen," _James replied, nodding at a few giggling Ravenclaws.

_"And Mum and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again," _Sirius added before the entire Gryffindor table began to sing the same tune.

_"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go!"_

_"There are twelve trees in the Great Hall - some on the grounds as well - the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow!"_

_"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; soon the bells will start!"_

_"And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that will sing right within your heart!"_

_"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas; soon the bells will start!"_ the entire Hall sang.

_"And the thing that will make them ring is the carol that will sing right withiiiiin yoooour heart!"_ Sirius finished, and everyone began to eat their lunch with grins on their faces.

After lunch was over, the Great Hall slowly emptied as more students went to their classes but most of the seventh years had a break. During this time, Hagrid was due to continue bringing in Christmas trees and the prefects and Heads were supposed to decorate and supervise decoration. Remus, as a prefect and James, as Head Boy, had to stay and help out, so Sirius and Peter decided to stay as well.

All was going quite well: teachers who didn't have classes were twirling their wands in the air to decorate the trees with various baubles and tinsels and toppers. Prefects were hanging stockings around the Hall for extra Christmasy decoration, and there was hardly a person in the entire room who wasn't in a good mood. There was much whistling, excited chatter, and even caroling going around. Sirius heard a few distinctive tunes:

_"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way!"_ many of the sixth year girls were singing. _"Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey!"_

The sixth year prefect boys were trying to distract them (or attract them, it was hard to tell) with songs of their own.

_"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock,"_ they sang, _"Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring. Snowing and blowing in bushels of fun, now the jingle hop has begun!"_

The girls retaliated, _"Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh, over the fields we go, laughing all the way, ha, ha, ha!"_

The boys, _"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock, jingle bells chime in jingle bell time, dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square, through the fro-"_

_"Bells on bob-tail ring, making spirits bright, what fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song __tonight!"_

_"What a bright time, it's the right time to rock the night away! Jingle bell time, it's a swell time to go riding in a one-horse sleigh."_

_"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey!"_

_"Giddy-up, jingle horse, pick up your feet, jingle around the clock!"_

_"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleeeeiiighh!"_

_"Mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet! That's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell rock!"_

"Woah, jingle bell battle," Sirius said from where he was leaning on the wall next to where Remus, James, and Lily were decorating one of the trees.

Lily glanced over at the sixth years. After a pause, she said thoughtfully, "I bet we could do better."

The Marauders glanced at each other and grinned in agreement.

"One," Lily said, "Two...three..."

_"Rocking around the Christmas tree, at the Christmas party hop,"_ all five of them sang in unison before they each broke off.

Sirius sang, _"Mistletoe hung where you can see, every couple tries to stop!"_

Remus continued, _"Rocking around the Christmas tree, let the Christmas spirit ring."_

Peter followed, _"Later we'll have some pumpkin pie and we'll do some caroling!"_

Most people in the hall turned to look; some of the sixth years had resentful looks on their faces because clearly this had been _their_ Christmas song battle. However, they were promptly ignored when James and Lily sang the next line together.

_"You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear, people singing let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly!"_

Before they could all rejoin in merry Marauder unison, however, they were interrupted by a very gruff voice continuing the song for them. They jumped in alarm and looked over to who was singing -

It was Hagrid. _"Rockin' around the Christmas tree, have a happy holiday! Every'un dancin' merrily 'n the new old-fashioned way!"_

The hall was silent for just a second as everyone exchanged a confused glance, but then they chorused, laughing, _"You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear, people singing let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly! Rocking around the Christmas tree, have a happy holidays! Everyone dancing merrily in the new, old-fashioned waaaaaay!"_

* * *

Snow was piling up on the Hogwarts grounds a foot high and counting and half of Hogwarts felt a strong twinge of desire to go out and make a mess of it. There was something beautiful about the fresh, unblemished layer of white laying across the undetectable grass as a white sheet that's ever-growing...but in the minds of the students, there was something even more beautiful about throwing snowballs at windows and making tracks in the pure snow and leaving two hundred snowmen all over the grounds having staring contests until they melt away.

As most of the students were pulling on their gloves and cloaks to prepare for the bitterly freezing air they were about to meet, they trilled a cheery tune that resounded to all corners of the castle.

_"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"'Tis the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Don we now our gay apparel, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Troll the ancient Yule-tide carol, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"_

Students began following each other out of their common rooms and down the moving staircases, singing all the way, some of them arm in arm with loving anticipation of going outside now and the upcoming Christmas holiday.

_"See the blazing Yule before us, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Strike the harp and join the chorus, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Follow me in merry measure, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"While I tell of Yule-tide treasure, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la."_

In cloaks of black greatly contrasting the pearly white outside, the students pooled out into the grounds, finding spots of interest and preparing to run for them with their friends.

_"Fast away the old year passes, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Hail the new year lads and lasses, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la._

_"Sing we joyous, all together, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!_

_"Heedless of the wind and weather, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!"_

Kids and teenagers from all seven years began to run around the grounds, some of them to engage in snowball fights and others to make snow angels or go skating on the frozen Black Lake. The seventh year Gryffindors, including the Marauders and all of Lily's friends, however, headed for a relatively secluded spot near the base of Gryffindor Tower.

Lily's friends decided to break away, as they wanted to go skating across the thick ice covering the lake. Lily, the Marauders noticed, chose instead to go for a walk by herself.

"So, what should we do?" Peter said eagerly. "Enchanted snowball fight? Muggle snowball fight? Mixed enchanted and Muggle snowball fight?"

"Snow angels!" Sirius shouted and purposefully fell backwards in the snow only to wave his arms and legs and make a very mediocre snow angel.

"We should go sledding," James said, eying a very appealing hilly area near them.

"Snowman!" Remus said, and fell to his knees to start rolling a ball together.

"Snowman contest!" Sirius yelled, jumping up and hurrying to try to make a ball faster than Remus could.

"Hey, no magic!"

"Too late!"

"Sirius!"

For about half an hour (after Remus successfully confiscated Sirius's wand on account of 'inappropriate usage with intention for misdeeds and mischief') the Marauders toiled away until there were four lumpy and misshapen snowmen standing a few feet away from each other. If Sirius's had eyes, it would be glaring at Remus.

_"Now_ can we make one with magic?" the Animagus dog muttered, snatching his wand out of Remus's hand when the latter held it out with a smirk.

"Fine," Remus said before an idea dawned. "We'll make...oh, I know! Have you guys ever heard of Frosty the snowman?"

"No," the other three murmured.

Remus lifted his wand and began to magically roll balls into what was clearly another snowman. "Well...

_"Frosty the snowman, was a jolly happy soul, with a corncob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal! Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale they say, he was made of snow but the children know how he came to life one day."_

Remus conjured features for their snowman, which the remaining three Marauders immediately began putting on. Remus kept the snowman's top hat to hold himself.

_"There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found, for when they placed it on his head he began to dance around!"_

With a flick of his wand, the snowman began a strange legless dance that caused the boys to jump back.

_"Frosty the snowman was alive as he could be, and the children say he could laugh and play just the same as you and me._

_"Frosty the snowman knew the sun was hot that day, so he said 'Let's run and we'll have some fun now before I melt away! Down to the village with a broomstick in his hand, running here and there all around the square saying catch me if you can._

_"He led them down the streets of town, right to the traffic cop, and he only paused a moment when he heard him holler 'Stop!'_

_"For Frosty the snowman had to hurry on his way, but he waved goodbye saying 'Don't you cry, I'll be back again someday.'"_

Sirius was standing beside their own personal Frosty, and Remus was surprised to see that his eyes looked sort of misty. "That's...so sad..."

Remus blinked. "Padfoot, it's just a song."

"I know, but those poor children..."

"...It's okay, Padfoot."

The Marauders continued to roughhouse for some time with their magic snowman and Sirus's misty eyes and eventually began pelting snowballs at each other and having snowman contests. Meanwhile, a certain girl their age with red hair contrasting with the white backdrop with tremendous intensity walked by, smiling slightly at the boys' antics.

Lily loved playing in the snow just as much as the boys and girls around her, but something about this snowfall just made her want to take a long walk and admire the true beauty of the holiday season. Gift-giving, caroling, the twinkling decorations and the pine smell of the fresh trees...and, of course, the light snowfall that eventually led up to the foot of snow she was walking in.

She looked up at the roofs of the castle, at the mystical Black Lake with the Giant Squid slumbering. The Forbidden Forest, looking more peaceful than she had ever seen it. Laughing kids and snowballs flying everywhere, noisy features that she promptly tuned out.

_"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,"_ she whispered to herself. _"In the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, so happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland._

_"Gone away is the bluebird. Here to stay is the new bird. He sings a love song, as we go along, walking in a winter wonderland._

_"In the meadow we can build a snowman, then pretend that he is Parson Brown." _She glanced at the Marauders - first at them, then at their snowmen, then at James. _"He'll say, 'Are you married?' We'll say, 'No, man! But you can do the job when you're in town...'_

_"Later on, we'll conspire, as we dream by the fire. To face unafraid, the plans that we've made, walking in a winter wonderland..."_

She kicked a little snow and watched it fly up before falling back down into an uneven pile. Swinging her arms a little, now realizing that she hadn't dressed warmly enough, she tried to keep herself warm.

_"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening, in the lane, snow is glistening. A beautiful sight, so happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland. Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay is the new bird...he sings a love song...as we go along...walking in a winter wonderland..."_

Lily walked on, freezing but unable to look away from the marvelous snowy mountains and covered trees.

* * *

It was very late that same day, the day before most students would be taking the Hogwarts Express back to King's Cross to spend the holidays with their families. Many frolickers had already gone inside, but the Marauders lingered outside with a hazy idea of making an enormous army of snowmen to guard the castle from any evil that might try to attack it. By the time that Lily, who had also remained outside, approached them after her long stroll on the grounds they were building what they called the 57th Scotland Division.

Peter, who had run up to the dorm an hour previously to fetch writing utensils, was marking down Sirius's dictations.

"This one is Colonel Sal T. Snowman."

"Salty Snowman?"

"Don't you dare make fun of the colonel's name, he was named for his grandfather, who also happens to be serving in the snowman army."

"I don't have any records of any other Sal T. Snowmen," Peter said, scanning over the list in the little light that he had from his wand and from the half moon.

"Well, check again! 42nd corps!"

As Sirius and Peter argued about the existence of a Mr. Sal T. Snowman, Remus and James were responsible for magicking snowmen fast enough to keep up with Sirius and Peter and conjuring them their makeshift military uniforms.

James was busy smoothing out the stomach of what would probably become something silly like General Tayce T. Snowman when Remus nudged him with his elbow and pointed several yards away. James immediately noticed the silhouette of someone facing away from them, staring over the mountains and craning her neck to look at the bright moon and the fresh appearances of a lot of stars. He realized very quickly that it was Lily.

"I, er -" he stammered, looking away quickly and focusing too intently on his snowman. "Didn't realize she was still out here."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Go talk to her."

James ran a gloved hand through his hair. "She sort of looks like she wants to be alone."

Remus chuckled, and knelt down to begin brushing off Tayce T. Snowman. "And that sort of argument is exactly why you're not going out with her yet."

"I'm over that, Moony. I'd much rather help make snowmen armies."

"Yeah, maybe, as much as Sirius is a chihuahua and werewolves are gentle."

Remus watched James walk away as Sirius shouted, "Hey, where are you going? We still need twenty more troops! Irresponsible bugger." Remus chuckled as he began to create more snowmen.

Some ten minutes later when it was even darker, James and Lily began walking back to the castle together, but Sirius was enforcing that they needed to stay and continue the army.

"Dedication, Moony! You'll never be a good soldier and you'll never _make_ good soldiers if you don't have dedication!" When Sirius noticed James and Lily, he shouted over to them, "Hey, wait! What about the men?"

"Give 'em a peptalk while I'm gone!" James called over his shoulder, and then said something else Remus couldn't hear. As James walked away, Remus heard Sirius muttering, "Why do these men have no dedication to the fine craft of building the strongest army Hogwarts will ever see?"

* * *

They stayed outside for a while longer before Sirius decided to "give the troops some rest" (although Remus thought Sirius was just pretending he wasn't freezing). Eventually, they too followed James and Lily inside, found seats at the Gryffindor table for the feast, and ate too much too quickly to satiate their sudden hunger. Eventually, they trekked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room and threw themselves in luxurious armchairs by the fire. They sat there for a while, too tired even to go up to bed.

It wasn't for several minutes that Remus opened his eyes and glanced at Sirius. What he saw was strange: Sirius seemed to be saying something with his eyes unfocused and staring at the fire, but no words were coming out. To be honest, it was really weird.

"Er...Sirius?" Remus said quietly, staring at his friend. Peter perked up slightly at this noise and looked from Remus to Sirius.

Sirius continued to wordlessly move his lips.

"Sirius?"

Suddenly he began to actually speak. Or...sing.

_"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful...and since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."_

Remus relaxed in his chair, convinced his friend hadn't gone insane or horribly sick from the many strenuous hours they spent outside. Somewhere, he heard the portrait hole open, but he didn't care until a voice responded to Sirius.

_"It doesn't show signs of stopping, and I've brought some corn for popping_ from the kitchens, _the lights are turned way down low...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."_

Sirius perked up as he turned and saw James walking toward them holding a bowl of popcorn kernels for effect.

Remus smiled at Sirius's excitement of seeing his best friend and joined in.

_"When we finally say good night, how I hate going out in the storm; but if you really hold me tight, all the way home I'll be warm!"_

As if on cue, the three sitting Marauders stood and James put his popcorn down and they all joined in a sort of weird brotherly eight-armed hug.

_"The fire is slowly dying,"_ Peter said.

_"And my dear, we're still good-bye-ing,"_ Remus chimed.

_"But as long as you love me so,"_ James sang.

_"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,"_ Sirius chorused, and they all began to laugh.

* * *

It was finally the day that Hogwarts students would be heading home for the Christmas holidays. They got up at the crack of dawn to throw last-minute things they would need in their trunks before saying goodbye to their dormitories until 1978. Some people were giving gifts to their friends now, some were hugging and doing some last-minute under the mistletoe kissing, but one thing that almost every student did the same was load their trunks and bags into moldy-smelling thestral-drawn carriages that would lead them down to Hogsmeade Station.

The four Marauders, who were all staying behind at Hogwarts for the break for their last Christmas together, went outside with the rest to say good-bye to some friends and watch the carriages leave (Sirius claimed he only went outside to keep an eye on his snowmen and to see if any Slytherins tried to sabotage them, in which case he would immediately proclaim them Death Eaters working for Voldemort).

At one point during the farewells, Lily, whom Remus noted seemed to have a bad cold, ran up, hugged James once, waved at the rest of them before jolting off to her carriage. James, with a slight blush and a grin, saw his friends looking at him and said quietly, "I'll tell you later."

Slowly but surely the carriages began to hobble on their way down the path to Hogsmeade, and Sirius, in a sudden outburst of spirit - and somewhat out of nowhere - began to sing.

_"Just see those thestrals jing-a-ling, ring ting ting-a-ling, too,"_ he sang, _"why yes it's lovely weather for a carriage ride together with you! Outside th-"_

"No!" Remus said suddenly, holding out his hand. "That doesn't make sense, you can't just put wizard words into a Muggle Christmas tune, I -"

_"Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling yoo-hoo, come on it's lovely weather for a carriage ride together with you!"_

"Thestrals don't 'jing-a-ling,' Sirius!" Remus shouted, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. "You can't -"

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Moony," James mused. "In fact..._Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap let's go - let's look at the show - they're riding in a wonderland of snow."_

"Thanks, Prongs. And yeah, Moony, _giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap it's grand, just holding your hand - they're gliding along with the song of a wintry fairy land!"_

As Remus looked like he was about to throw something and Sirius's inappropriate changing of Muggle songs, the same tune began to come from the carriages, where the hundreds of students were all singing in unison.

_"Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we, we're snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be!_

_"Let's take the road before us and sing a chorus or two, come on it's lovely weather for a carriage ride together with you!"_

* * *

For the next few days, the Marauders walked around the castle, perfected the army, snuck down to Hogsmeade a few times through secret passages, and occasionally Remus could even get them to study. The castle was nearly empty, emptier than it had been in Christmases past: the war was raging outside the protective walls of Hogwarts and of course families wanted to spend as much time together as they would in case something happened. It was lonely sometimes, but it was nice having the Gryffindor common room almost empty all the time.

On Christmas Eve night, they found themselves in the same place around the roaring fire of the scarlet and gold common room, each occupying a comfortable, plush armchair and relaxing in the warmth of the huge flame before them. They had been talking for hours, just talking, about stuff, everything, and nothing, and they never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Eventually, as to be expected, Sirius grew somewhat bored of this, and requested they do a different thing.

"Hey, guys," he said, with his feet on the table in front of him. "Let's Christmas carol."

They all looked at him. Eventually, Remus said, "Okay, go ahead. But sing it right, this time," he added sourly as an afterthought.

Sirius grinned with a carol in mind. "All right, Moony. How about...

_"Here comes Dumbledore, here comes Dumbledore, right down Dumbledore Lane." _Remus rolled his eyes. _"Flitwick and Slughorn and all his teachers pullin' on the reins! Bells are ringin', first years singin', all is merry and bright, so hang your stockings and say your prayers 'cause our presents come tonight!"_

"You can't...ugh," Remus sighed, and leaned back in his chair, before popping up again with an idea. "Fine, Padfoot. If you can't sing it right, then I will.

_"Here comes Santa Claus here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane, he's got a pag that's filled with toys for boys and girls again. Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle, oh what a beautiful sight, so jump in bed and cover your head cause Santa Claus comes tonight!"_

James and Peter were laughing at their friends bickering. Sirius leaned back in his chair with a "Hmmm..." before he sat up again. "Fine, I have another one.

_"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But, do you recall the most famous reindeer of all..."_

Remus smiled at this childhood song, glad that Sirius wasn't naming off Santa's reindeer with names of people he knew. He was about to sing along, before Sirius threw him off by jumping out of his seat, and singing:

_"Potter the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose!"_

"Oh, no." Remus rubbed his eyes.

"Wait, what?" James said.

_"And if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows! All of the other Marauders used to laugh and call him names; they never let poor Prongsie join in any Marauder games!_

_"Then one foggy Christmas eve, Dumbledore came to say -"_

_"HO, HO, HO!" _shouted Peter.

_"Potter with your nose so bright, won't you be Head Boy tonight? Then all the teachers loved him, and they shouted out with glee -"_

_"YIPEE!"_

_"Potter the red-nosed stag-deer, you'll go down in history!"_

Remus, trying to hold back his laughter, said, "Sirius, no more Christmas carols."

"Don't be ridiculous, Moony."

"I'm not be. You're ruining the spirit of Christmas."

"I am not!"

Too tired to try to win the argument, Remus shook his head, smiling, and leaned back in his chair again.

They remained silent for a long time before Sirius's voice made them all jump.

_"God bless ye merry hippogriff let nothing you dismay-"_

"NO!" shouted Remus, jumping out of his seat. "I'm going to bed! Merry Christmas eve!"

When he was out of earshot, Sirius turned back to James and Peter and said, "What a scrooge."

"Bah humbug!" Remus's voice shouted from the boy's staircase.

The other three boys shortly went to follow Remus up to the dormitory before too long. With nothing else to do, they all crawled in their own beds, turned out all the lights, and sat their under the covers, probably too excited to sleep for Christmas day was tomorrow.

They lay there a long time, in their comfortable four-poster beds with snow sticking to the dorm windows. At their feet lay their trunks where in a few hours their presents would sit, waiting for them. Before they could all drift off to sleep, however, Remus's tired voice came floating away from his bed, drifting over the room to his friends' ears.

_"You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry..."_

Sirius, quite surprised that in his half-awake state he would hear Remus initiating this after his explosion downstairs, was the first to pick it up.

_"You'd better not pout, I'm telling you why."_

James's voice drifted sleepily out next.

_"Santa Claus is coming to town."_

Peter was the last.

_"He's making a list, he's checking it twice..."_

_"He's gonna find out if you're naughty or nice,"_ Remus sang.

_"Santa Claus is coming to town,"_ Sirius and James sang together.

_"He sees you when you're sleeping,"_ Peter sang.

_"He knows when you're awake,"_ Remus called.

_"He knows if you're been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake, hey!"_ Sirius sang.

They all sang together:

_"You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town!"_

Sirius rolled over in his bed, sticking his face into his pillow, and said a very muffled, "Merry Christmas, guys."

* * *

**Author's Note:** If you're interested, check out my profile shortly for a separate fic for "Baby It's Cold Outside" that's centered on LJ.

I'm pretty sure this took me about four days. I had a _lot_ of fun writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much. I'd love to unwrap some reviews this holiday season ;) Thank you so much for reading! Have a good new year, happy holidays, and:

**MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!**


	22. Someday My Prince Will Come

**Author's Note:** CRACK ALERT AHEAD. I need to be stopped.

Requested by MermaidGirl34. Best idea ever. Sorry it took so long to release another chapter but I've been busy doing nothing.

**Song:** _Snow White_ - "Someday My Prince Will Come"

"I can't believe this," Harry grumbled as he and the sixth years queued up outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "Snape teaching Defense..._Snape,_teaching _Defense!"_

"Oh calm down, Harry, at least you're good at the subject," Hermione snapped, irritably shifting some of her heavy textbooks in her arms. "Just ignore him and you'll be fine. I still can't believe I have to read all these books by Wednesday," she muttered as an afterthought.

Ron just had a sullen look on his face as the door creaked open and Snape in his flowing black bat robes pointed into the room.

All the Gryffindors who had made it to N.E.W.T. level shuffled towards seats in the back of the room, giving each other gloomy looks.

_"Snape,_ teaching _Defense!"_ Harry muttered again and crossed his arms like a pouty eight-year-old. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

Snape gave them a brief monotone lecture before he instructed them to preform nonverbal Shield Charms. They were, of course, supposed to be silent, but with all the commotion caused by faulty Shield Charms and flashy lights of spells everywhere, Harry, Ron, and Hermione could maintain a quiet conversation in the back in between their incantations.

"This is horrible," Harry moaned quietly, jabbing at the air with his wand in frustration. "I can do a perfect bloody Shield Charm so why can't we just leave it at that."

"Oh, _do_ stop complaining Harry," Hermione said, screwing up her face to try to repel Ron's half-attempted Jelly-Legs Jinx.

"No Hermione, Harry's right," Ron said. "This is just stupid."

"It will help us in the future! Preforming a nonverbal charm is the first step to becoming a better duelist and with Voldemort out on the run I think that's the best thing we can have now!"

"No, it's stupid."

"At least Snape _does_ know the subject, I mean why else would Dumbledore have agreed?"

"Stupid."

"Stupid," Harry agreed.

"Plus," Ron reasoned, "That Slughorn guy is huge. One day he's going to try to make it up from the dungeons for breakfast and he won't be able to make it, and when finally House-elves come to bring him food he'll eat himself to death. And then Snape will be back at teaching Potions, we can quit, we'll have a better Defense teacher, and we'll all live happily ever after."

"Sounds good."

"I am a little concerned about Potions," said Hermione, ignoring Ron completely. "I mean we don't know what this Slughorn will be like, what if he's not a very good teacher after all? At least Snape knew his Potions."

"Stupid."

"Are you going to say that every time I say Snape's name?"

"Stupidus Snape."

Harry laughed too loudly, and didn't even look at Snape as a "Ten points from Gryffindor" floated across the room.

"Yeah, Harry, no laughs in the Defense room," Ron said. "Anyway, Hermione, I'm sure Potions will be great. Fantastic. _Anything_ is great without Stupidus Snape there."

"Ronald, this is why your points always get taken away! Plus, what are you expecting to do about your Potions books and ingredients?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure some Potions prince will come and sweep us away and magically give us all of our supplies."

Harry snickered again, but was careful to control the volume of his voice. He edged a little closer to Ron and said, "Someday _my_ prince will come."

Hermione rolled her eyes and shot an annoyed spell at Ron and when it hit him she sneered in a whisper, _"You didn't do a Shield Charm properly."_

Ron and Hermione started a mini duel of shooting hexes and spells back and forth and preforming whispered Shield Charms. Harry stood dully watching them, and whispered the same words he had just spoke. "Someday...my prince will come..."

On a whim, he drew a breath and sang in a quiet whisper:

_"Someday my prince will come, someday we'll meet again!_

_"And away to his castle we'll go...to be happy forever, I know!"_

Getting really into it, Harry didn't notice Snape's shifty-eyed expression across the room, or the heads turning towards him as he did a maginificent twirl with sparks trailing from the tip of his wand.

_"Someday when spring is here,"_ Harry sang loudly, completely forgetting his place in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, _"We'll find our love anew!_

_"And the birds will sing, and wedding bells will ring! Someday when my dreams...come...true..."_

Sighing, Harry leaned against a cupboard on the wall. "Ah, my Potions prince..."

A few minutes later, the bell rang and Harry shouted excitedly, for the first time in his life, "ALL RIGHT, LET'S GO TO POTIONS!"

**Author's Note:** Um.


	23. Reflection

**Author's Note:** I'm so sorry.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything ya hur.

**Song:** _Mulan_ - "Reflection"

"Harry's last month with the Dusleys wasn't fun. [...] Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become depressing after a while."  
_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone page 88._

Harry stood before the square-shaped window in his new room at number four, Privet Drive. Dudley's old room. Cluttered everywhere were Dudley's old abandoned toys, probably over a hundred things that Dudley would never used but still couldn't part with because his stupid blonde head had been trained from early childhood to think it was superior to Harry's. But now, no matter how many tantrums Dudley might throw and how many screaming fits lit up the eyes and ears of the nosy neighbors, the threat of magic had persuaded Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon to give Harry his own room.

That had, of course, been mostly the limit of contact between Harry and his family. It would have been peaceful, no doubt, if he hadn't been treated like a ghost for a few weeks - but being ignored _was_ better than being ridiculed and neglected.

Still, even with his looming departure to Hogwarts on the first of September, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. That he was going to get there and it would all be a giant prank. He had believed it while he was with Hagrid in Diagon Alley, but it almost seemed as though when he got home, he couldn't seem to remember whether it had all been a dream or not. It had certainly felt like one...

But then when he looked up at the amber eyes of his beautiful new owl, he felt the rush of excitement all over again.

It was very late; the sky was a deep blue and an almost full moon lingered directly over where he looked outside, indicating it was around midnight. If he squinted or turned off the light in his room, he would be able to see the stars sprinkling all over the Little Whinging neighborhood. And he probably should turn his light off, he thought, because the neighbors were likely sneering out their windows, nosily wondering what in the world someone was doing up this hour on number four - but Harry didn't care. He didn't want to turn the light off... the light was sort of refreshing. It wasn't that he was afraid of the dark or anything - but the light radiating from his lamp was...

It made him feel less alone.

That's all he had really ever been, after all. He had Hedwig to talk to now, but she couldn't talk back. He had never had any real friends, and if his history said anything about him, he suspected he wouldn't get any at Hogwarts, either.

The thought terrified him. Who would want to be friends with him? A short, thin kid with messy hair and taped glasses. A kid who didn't know the first thing about magic, who would probably turn out to be a complete failure and would be sent back to Privet Drive to live forever. A kid who...who they would all see as famous, but was really just...a kid.

He hugged his arms around himself. It was the middle of August, but suddenly he found himself chilled. He lurched onto his bed for a few moments, before feeling a bout of restlessness and jumped back up to the window.

He pressed his face against the cool glass and peered down onto the street. All those other kids going to Hogwarts...they would stare at him with awed expressions and expect so much out of him - and they would think that they had heard his story so many times that they must already know him. But they _didn't_. They had no idea who he really was and what he was like. To them he was a superkid, a hero who defeated the Dark Lord - but really, he was just _himself._

He glanced up and looked into his reflection's eyes. In the dim light created from his lamp, he could hardly make out the green color of his eyes or the paleness of his skin, but he wasn't really looking at that anyway. He was staring at his reflection without even really seeing it.

_"Look at me,"_ he whispered to no one. _"I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter-"_

He blinked, confused, unsure of what he had just said, before he shook it off.

_"Can it be...I'm not meant to play this part?_

_"Now I see,"_ he said, turning towards Hedwig, _"That if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart."_

He turned away from the mirror and shrunk against the wall, wrapping his arms around his knobbly knees.

_"Who is that boy I see, staring straight back at me - why is my reflection someone I don't know?_

_"Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside?"_

He rose slowly once more and glanced at his gaunt-looking eleven-year-old face in the windowpane.

_"When will my reflection show...who I am...inside..."_

After a moment more of staring, Harry moved slowly to his bed and shrunk under the covers, ready to stare at the ceiling until he fell asleep.

**Author's Note:** If you didn't imagine Harry with Mulan's voice, go back and read it again. HO HO HO.

I wish these songs were longer.


End file.
